Sy, Ahcy Mari P.

GEED 10093
BSA 1-12 Ethics

Reflection Paper on Euthyphro

In a world full of doubts and deceptions, people tend to believe what is presented to the
naked eye without studying and questioning what’s hiding behind all these. They’re ready to
debate about something that’s so vague and unexamined rather than clear and proven ones.
Like Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, humans covert from the real world and keep themselves
inside a dark and narrow space, because they’re not comfortable with the truth that’s been there
ever since. We often tend to isolate ourselves from things that we’re not familiar of, because
we’re afraid of the fact that if there’s something’s new, there’s a corresponding change in every
aspect of our lives. Any alteration in life is feared by many, for we are so used to experience the
same process over and over again that we’re frightened to add something, because we might
not get what we expected. Same as beliefs, these are the stuff that we held on to ever since we
opened our eyes to the world. These are very important to each one of us, regardless of its
origin, but how can one stand by with his or her faith of something that’s been considered to be
questionable?

Plato’s Dialogue of Socrates and Euthyphro tackles about the conversation of two
people namely, Socrates and Euthyphro concerning what is pious and impious in the eyes of
the gods considering that a thing can be pious to one, and impious to the other. Socrates throws
a lot of arguments contradicting Euthyphro’s earlier statements. It shows that he’s challenging
the latter to dig deeper into his faith in order to pour out ideas to justify his beliefs that seems to
be not convincing to Socrates. Despite all of the chances given to Euthyphro, he still managed
to fail in answering the queries. This shows how shallow beliefs may appear when not justified
properly with strong evidences that may support one’s stand. For me, the different pious and
impious of the gods symbolizes our values that seems to be opposing with one another. It’s not
impossible for us to contradict ourselves, especially when numerous factors exist in the
environment that can alter our principles in a swift. At this present-day, people can be easily
manipulated by flowery words spoken by public figures such as politicians and artists; this is
where are values are tested by society. Here’s the problem, we’re easily caught up by words
without doubting, and doing any background check; and at the end of the day we find ourselves
battering about someone that we once believed in, but turned out to be the opposite. So you
see, our beliefs can be shaken effortlessly, because we don’t possess a firm foundation, like
Euthyphro.

As what I have mentioned earlier, people are more comfortable and interested with
obscure subjects rather than the opposite. Humans believe the unbelievable, and subdue the
examined and unfiltered evidences of one’s argument. Despite of the fact that we already have
open access to all information available with the use of the internet, we still choose to ignore the
facts and stick to what’s trending just merely for sense of belongingness. In this society wherein
everybody’s entitled with their own judgments, it’s wise to assess every issue before coming up
with a stand, and not just jive in with the crowd where it’s convenient.