The old Euthyphro trick gets the polytheist every time…

The Euthyphro dilemma, as it has been deemed, has never seemed to me to be a threat to traditional western monotheism. I will within the next few weeks address the reason why I think this is so. But I wish to be upfront: I think it obviously only presents a problem to a certain set of theological beliefs. Thus, I am offering an observation, not an argument. Implicit to this take on the Euthyphro dilemma however, is the possibility that Plato was arguing on behalf of some sort of monotheism, by way of denying the moral authority of a plurality of gods. Deity by committee, perhaps, did not appeal to Plato. I am not convinced of this possibility, but I am open to it.

In the meantime I have translated the first portion of the relevant dialogue.

Socrates:
Quickly, good man, we will become better men. For consider such a thing: Regarding the holy, is the holy what is loved by the gods, or that what is loved by them is holy?

Euthyphro:
I do not know what you mean, Socrates.

Socrates:
But I will attempt to say it more clearly. We speak a certain way of “something being carried and something carrying it” and “something being lead and something leading” and “something being seen and something seeing” and you know that they are different from each other in all such things and in this way they differ?

Euthyphro:
I think I am learning.

Socrates:
So also is there something loved and the thing different from it, the thing doing the loving?

Euthyphro:
How could it not be so?

Socrates:
Tell me, whether the thing that is carried is a carried thing because it is carried, or because of something else?

Euthyphro:
No, but because it is carried.

Socrates:
And the thing lead because it is lead, and the thing seen because it is seen?

Euthyphro:
Entirely.

Socrates:
And not because it is a “seen thing”, and because of this, it is seen, but the opposite, it is seen, and through this it is a “seen thing”…

Σωκράτης
τάχ᾽, ὠγαθέ, βέλτιον εἰσόμεθα. ἐννόησον γὰρ τὸ τοιόνδε: ἆρα τὸ ὅσιον ὅτι ὅσιόν ἐστιν φιλεῖται ὑπὸ τῶν θεῶν, ἢ ὅτι φιλεῖται ὅσιόν ἐστιν;

Εὐθύφρων
οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅτι λέγεις, ὦ Σώκρατες.

Σωκράτης
ἀλλ᾽ ἐγὼ πειράσομαι σαφέστερον φράσαι. λέγομέν τι φερόμενον καὶ φέρον καὶ ἀγόμενον καὶ ἄγον καὶ ὁρώμενον καὶ ὁρῶν καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα μανθάνεις ὅτι ἕτερα ἀλλήλων ἐστὶ καὶ ᾗ ἕτερα;

Εὐθύφρων
ἔγωγέ μοι δοκῶ μανθάνειν.

Σωκράτης
οὐκοῦν καὶ φιλούμενόν τί ἐστιν καὶ τούτου ἕτερον τὸ φιλοῦν;

Εὐθύφρων
πῶς γὰρ οὔ;

Σωκράτης
λέγε δή μοι, πότερον τὸ φερόμενον διότι φέρεται φερόμενόν ἐστιν, ἢ δι᾽ ἄλλο τι;

Εὐθύφρων
οὔκ, ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦτο.

Σωκράτης
καὶ τὸ ἀγόμενον δὴ διότι ἄγεται, καὶ τὸ ὁρώμενον διότι ὁρᾶται;

Εὐθύφρων
πάνυ γε.

Σωκράτης
οὐκ ἄρα διότι ὁρώμενόν γέ ἐστιν, διὰ τοῦτο ὁρᾶται, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἐναντίον διότι ὁρᾶται, διὰ τοῦτο ὁρώμενον…
Euthyphro 10A-B