PHIL 100, Section 005
Spring 2006
Study Questions
Another great image from the Perseus
collection! This vase, from the early fifth century BCE, depicts
the Greek goddess Athena considering carefully before she writes on a
tablet.
These study questions are intended to aid and guide your study of the course texts. From time to time throughout the semester, you will have the opportunity to answer certain of the study questions for extra credit, as noted in the syllabus. (These extra-credit assignments will always be OPTIONAL. You will never be required to do extra-credit work.) The questions that can be answered for extra credit will be clearly identified.
The rest of the time, the study questions are intended purely to help
you learn and to contribute to discussions. In these cases, you do not
need to write down your answers, and you do not need to hand them in.
But students have often said that they find it helpful to jot down a
few notes in response to the questions, and then to compare these notes
with what is presented in class.
Back to PHIL 100/005 main page1/23/06: questions to be discussed in class on 1/25/06 (not for extra credit)
Text: Plato, Euthyphro in Trial and Death of Socrates1. Why is Socrates at court? Why is Euthyphro at court?
2. Why does Socrates ask Euthyphro, "What is the pious?" ?
3. At line 3b-c (see the little numbers and letters at the side of the page), Euthyphro says that he and Socrates are similar in that they both say new and unusual things, often having to do with religious matters. Yet they can't be all that similar: the people of Athens laugh at Euthyphro but they want to get rid of Socrates. How then are Euthyphro and Socrates different? Can you find any differences between the two men that might make people laugh at Euthyphro but want to get rid of (or even kill) Socrates?
4. (This question is one we won't answer completely on Jan. 25, but it's something to think about as we go through the dialogue over the next couple of weeks.)
Do Socrates and Euthyphro discover what the pious is? If so, what do you think they discover that it is? If you think that in this dialogue they don't discover what the pious is, what do they find? And if they don't discover what the pious is, why do you think that Plato (the author) wants us to read this exchange between them?
1/25/06: questions to be discussed in class on 1/30/06 (not for extra credit)
1. Does Socrates prove in the Euthyphro that the pious is not what the gods love? If so, how? If not, what if anything does he prove?