Plato's Euthyphro - Which comes first: God or Morality?

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This lecture explains the central argument that Plato is making, in the voice of Socrates, in the dialogue, Euthyphro. The central question of the dialogue is: what is virtue? The word 'virtue' is used synonymously with the word 'piety'. We can also understand the central argument as applying to what today we would call ethics or morality. Socrates asks what makes the virtuous acts virtuous. Euthyphro answers that those acts are loved by the gods. (We can understand this whole argument as applying equally well to monotheism with a single God.) But Socrates then asks a question about the order of explanatory priority: are virtuous acts virtuous because they are beloved by the gods, or are they beloved by the gods because they are virtuous? In the dialogue, Plato only considers one of the possible answers, but in this video lecture I discuss both. This is part of an introductory level philosophy course, Introduction to Ethics.