Project 1 Questions and Instructions
Instructions
Below are topics on Plato’s Euthyphro and Apology. For your project, select one topic.
a) For this project you need to perform the research necessary to discuss the selected topic and write an essay (2 pages). You must document all your sources. An essay without any sources listed will not be accepted.
b) The assignment is worth 10 points.
c) Submit your essay using the assignment ‘Project 1’ link. Specify which topic you are discussing (Euthyphro 1, Euthyphro 2, Apology 1, Apology 2.)

EUTHYPHRO

Euthyphro Topics

Euthyphro meets Socrates on the porch of the “King Archon,” an Athenian official who was responsible for receiving indictments and scheduling trials. Socrates is there to respond to Meletus’ indictment for corrupting the youth and making innovations among the gods honored at Athens (a kind of impiety). Socrates is somewhat shocked to hear from Euthyphro that he is there to indict his own father on a charge of impiety for the death of a contractor several years before on his family’s estate on the island of Naxos. Socrates says that Euthyphro must really know what piety is, if he is indicting his own father for impiety, and, considering Socrates’ own difficulties, perhaps he can help Socrates refute the charges against him by sharing his knowledge of what is pious.

Given the context for the dialogue as stated above, Socrates clearly implies that knowing what is truly pious will help him to defend himself.
1) Research and explain how the laws of Athens at the time allowed Socrates to be indicted on charges of impiety (introducing new gods into Athens). Socrates clearly believes that a rational definition of what piety (or holiness) really is will help him to refute a charge of impiety. What is Socrates assuming about the relation between how Athenian law defines piety and how a rational examination defines piety? Are the definitions the same? What if they are not the same?
2) At Stephanus page [10d]*, Socrates gets Euthyphro to accept that the gods love what is pious because it itself is pious instead of what is pious being pious because the gods love it. How does this answer respond to Socrates’ request at page 6d that Euthyphro tell him, “the form itself that makes all pious actions pious” (emphasis added)? What does an independent form of piety do? If rational examination shows that what is pious is pious independently of the gods, would this answer imply that Socrates is an atheist as the Athenians would have understood it?

APOLOGY
Plato is mentioned in the Apology as being present at Socrates’ trial. Here, Plato presents the arguments Socrates made addressing the charges against him made by his accusers Meletus, Lycon and Anytus. Meletus was a poet, Lycon an orator and Anytus a politician/merchant: the three types Socrates describes as been found without genuine knowledge in his search for a wise man. Socrates’ arguments are curious because his responses are described as causing a disturbance among the jurors and seem almost intended to provoke conviction rather than acquittal.

1) After addressing the charges of both the “old” accusers (Aristophanes) and the “new” accusers (Meletus, Lycon and Anytus), Socrates turns to defending his own way of life at Apology 28a – 35d. Socrates’ asks the question, What have I done that would lead to my being accused of impiety, and how could I have corrupted the youth? Briefly describe the several different justifications Socrates gives for why he has led the life of questioning that he did. How do his answers here address the suspicion of atheism cast upon Socrates? However, do his answers here also suggest guilt regarding the charge of introducing new gods in Athens? Briefly describe Socrates’ argument for why it was impossible for him to have knowingly corrupted the youth. Why is the doctrine of what we now call mens rea important to Socrates defense?

2) In the Apology at pages 24b-28a, Socrates argues that Meletus is confusing Socrates with Anaxagoras, a Pre-Socratic philosopher from Ionia (what is now western Turkey), who lived in Athens for about twenty years, but who fled after also being accused of impiety. The accusation against Anaxagoras followed upon the death of the Athenian leader Pericles, with whom Anaxagoras was closely associated. In this way, there are some parallels between what happened to Anaxagoras and what happened to Socrates. Research who Anaxagoras was, briefly describing his life and principal doctrines. Explain why Anaxagoras’ doctrines (especially the materialist parts) would have appeared atheistic to Athenians. Socrates studied with one of Anaxagoras’ students in Athens as a young man: How is Socrates’ focus on ethics (virtue) different or even impossible according to Anaxagoras’ theories? Hint: materialism is doctrine that maintains that all changes are functions of mechanical rules that apply to matter.

*Stephanus Pagination: a system of organization used in modern editions and translations of Plato, based on the first complete edition of Plato’s works printed by Henri Estienne (Henricus Stephanus) in Venice in 1578.