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:"The point which I should first wish to understand is whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved by the gods."
:"The point which I should first wish to understand is whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved by the gods."
==Implications of the Problem==
In this context, piety and holiness is interchangable with virtue or goodness.
Socrates is asking Euthyphro whether: (a) the god's love something because it is good, or (b) whether the object is good because the gods love it.
If we take (a) to be true, then the gods are unnecessary, because the object would be good regardless of their existence.
If we take (b) to be true, then we have two problems: that of continuity and that of arbitrariness. The problem of continuity is what happens when the gods change their minds and then declare the opposite to be immoral: an exaggerated example is if murder was declared holy and just. The problem of arbitrariness states that the gods just selected some random things, and then declared them holy for no real moral reason (as morality wouldn't exist until they did); this obviously raises the question about whether the random things they selected to be holy were really the best things for humanity.
==External links==
==External links==