Answer one of the following prompts in 800-1000 words.

Your answers are due via turnitin by Friday, October 22, at 6 pm.

1. “But if the god-loved and the pious were the same, my dear Euthyphro, then if the pious was being

“But if the god-loved because it was pious, the god-loved would also be being loved because it was

god-loved; and if the god-loved was god-loved because it was being loved by the gods, then the pious

would also be pious because it was being loved by the gods. But now you see that they are in opposite cases

as being altogether different from each other: the one is such as to be loved because it is being loved, the

other is being loved because it is such as to be loved. I’m afraid, Euthyphro, that when you were asked

what piety is, you did not wish to make its nature clear to me, but you told me an affect or quality of it,

that the pious has the quality of being loved by all the gods, but you have not yet told me what the pious

is.”

In the Euthyphro, Socrates ultimately responds to Euthyphro’s claim that the pious is that which all the gods

love with the above complaint. Given both what Socrates means by an account of piety and why he is

interested in finding one, explain why Socrates is so dissatisfied with Euthyphro’s claim. If it is indeed true

that all the gods love pious actions, why isn’t this a satisfactory definition? What kind of thing would need

to be specified in an adequate account?

2. “Then does a man with this kind of knowledge seem to depart from virtue in any respect if he really

knows, in the case of all goods whatsoever, what they are and will be and have been, and similarly in the

case of evils? And do you regard that man as lacking in temperance or justice and holiness to whom alone

belongs the ability to deal circumspectly with both gods and men with respect to both the fearful and its

opposite, and to provide himself with good things through his knowledge of how to associate with them

correctly.

In the Laches, Socrates and Laches unwittingly discover an extraordinarily valuable type of knowledge

when looking for the virtue of courage. Indeed, this knowledge appears to provide its possessor with all of

the standardly recognized Greek virtues, and to allow whoever has it to provide themselves with good

things and to associate with them correctly. Explain the content of this knowledge, why Socrates believes it

to be so valuable, and how a search for courage ends up revealing temperance, justice, and holiness as

well. You may appeal to any of the Socratic dialogues we have discussed when answering, but should focus

primarily on the dialectic in the Laches itself.