What does piety really mean? Is there a universal definition of piety? How can we say if a person is pious or impious? Do we have a certain standard to determine what is pious or not? In Plato's dialogue the Euthyphro, Socrates argues against all the definition of piety Euthyphro gave him. In Euthyphro's initial dialogues with Socrates he is in the process of prosecuting his father for the murder of a murderer. Socrates did not understand the philosophy behind Euthyphro's actions and he wants to understand what piety means. On the other hand, Socrates is facing a trial himself and wanted to be able to understand the same respect that Euthyphro already achieved. Euthyphro claims that he fully understands the divine law of piety and impiety. In the dialogues, he offers distinct definition of piety. [1] Prosecute the wrong doer no matter who it is, what crime it is, not to prosecute is impious (Euthyphro, 6e). [2] What is dear to the god is pious, what is impious (Euthyphro, 7a). [3] The pious is what all the gods love (Euthyphro, 9e). [4] The godly and pious is the part of the just that is concerned with the care of the gods (Euthyphro, 12e). [5] A kind of service to the god of the god (Euthyphro, 13d). [6] The knowledge of how to sacrifice and pray (Euthyphro, 14c). [7] Piety is the knowledge of how to give to and beg from the gods (Euthyphro, 14d). [8] Pious is pleasing to the gods but not not beneficial or dear to them which goes back to definition 2. .
In the dialogue, the first definition, to prosecute the wrong doer no matter who it is and what crime it is pious. This is the part when Euthyphro prosecuting his father for murder. Is the definition universal? I would say no. Definition one is inconsistent because there's no standard in all similar cases. Some of the cases would agree to the definition but some of them would disagree too. So we can't use definition 1 as what really piety is.
