Euthyphro

In this dialog a specific theme is treated: piety. This specific dialogue seems to be related with the process because impiety is one of the accusations Socrates faces. Just like most of Plato's works, Socrates tries to find the universal definition of an ethical term.

In fact, Euthyphro's character is majestically periled. He thinks he is obliged to prosecute his own father because he killed one of his workers. What really amazes Socrates is Euthyphro's certainty that he is performing a pious action.

In the dialogue, Socrates introduces the Euthyphro dilemma: Is an action pious because the gods declare it is pious, or is an action pious because the gods observed and studied the action and then reached the conclusion that the action is, indeed, pious?

In the first case, it would seem that the concept of right and wrong would be a fairly arbitrary concept. A god could choose a thing that is "good" today and declare it "bad" tomorrow. The definitive nature of morality could then be questioned. The second case assumes that the gods did not create everything in the world under their own accord. Would it make sense for the gods to create a concept such as "piety" only to have them study their own creation to see if it was good or not? If the gods occasionally rejected their own creations as "bad," would this contradict the viewpoint that everything the gods create is good?

See also: Divine command theory