Traditional And Utilitarian Approaches To The Euthyphro...

Traditional And Utilitarian Approaches To The Euthyphro Dilemma In the Euthyphro, Plato describes the proceedings of a largely circular argument between Socrates and Euthyphro, a self-declared prophet and pious man, over the nature of piety and even of the gods themselves. The issues raised in this dialogue have been reinterpreted and extended to remain relevant even with a modern theological framework, so much so that the central issue is now known simply as ?the Euthyphro dilemma.? This is based on Socrates? two-way choice which he offers in the dialogue: Consider this: Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is being loved by the gods? (10a) In the context of the dialogue, this†¦show more content†¦There is no big agreement in the modern monotheist camp as to which half of the dilemma to choose; for example, Descartes chose the big-scary-unknowable-god option (Ill refer to that as Option 1) and Saadia Gaon fell firmly into the good-came-before-god camp (Option 2) (Rich 1, Solomon 36). However, there are clearly problems with choosing either side if you want a traditional God; it is a dilemma, after all. The assumptions that cause the dilemma to be so problematic are more or less: a) God is omnipotent, b) God is good, and c) God is like the Biblical God; God is knowable in some sense, and we can form meaningful relationships with Him (or Her, to be PC). For simplicitys sake we will just deal with the Old Testament, since both Jews and Christians accept it and it prevents us having to delve into the finer points of Trinitarian theology. Assumption a is pretty much a fair assumption in modern discussions of God. If God were not omnipotent then we have no real use for Him; He cant be counted on 100% to deliver on a promise, and whatever transcends God may be more worthy of our attention than God is (in our example, it might be goodness). The same is true of assumption b; a non-good God is more or less useless to us; after all, he may strike us down at a whim or reward the evil with an eternal heaven. That is, a or b