0061 Euthyphro 13b

30/09/2022 14 min
0061 Euthyphro 13b

Listen "0061 Euthyphro 13b"

Episode Synopsis

Euthyphro has defined justice as the therapeia (tending) of gods on the one hand and the therapeia of men on the other. Socrates treats therapeia as if it is techne (skill, craft, art), suggesting that there is an expert for every therapeia, and Euthyphro the expert on the gods naturally agrees. However, while the therapeia of animals leads to their improvement, the therapeia of the gods cannot possibly lead to their improvement, so that it becomes clear (!) that the two types of therapeia are different. To be clear, the therapeia of men was already a rhetorical flourish by Euthyphro, made worse by Socrates' confusion of therapeia with techne, and this does not refute per se the notion that the aspect of justice dealing with holiness is a therapeia of the gods. What has been clarified is that this therapeia should not affect the gods.

More episodes of the podcast The Plato Paradigm