Take Home Quiz #1 on Plato's Euthyphro plus a Little Research

Do both parts of this Quiz: A and B. Abide by the constraints below when writing your short paper on Plato's Euthyphro. Then learn how to use the Philosopher's Index before engaging in the required bibliographical work.

A. Euthyphro 

1. Read Plato's Euthyphro.
2. Re-read pages 18-22 in a very careful manner.
3. Throughout the dialogue, Socrates and Euthyphro seem to be struggling in an attempt to explain what piety (or: holiness) is. Forget about the piety stuff. Imagine that instead of discussing the concept of piety, our interlocutors are arguing about the nature of moral rightness. (In fact, in many passages, they seem to be doing just that!).
   Try to identify the accounts of moral rightness that Euthyphro proposes to Socrates.
4. After dismissing (at least) one account, Euthyphro modifies an earlier account, which results in the account under discussion just below the top of page 20.
5. From pages 20-22, Socrates presents a complicated argument against the view under discussion.
6. After clearly stating the account of moral rightness under discussion, present and explain the argument that Socrates uses in efforts to refute Euthyphro's account. You may present and explain the argument informally; that is, you aren't required to put it into one of my favorite logical forms. In fact, I hope that you'll see that the argument has a fairly complicated logical structure.
7. Finally, evaluate Socrates' argument.

B. Philosopher's Index: Theology and Ethics

Visit the NMSU Article databases. (You can reach it from the NMSU Library webpages.) Scroll down to the Philosopher's Index and then go there. (They might not let you in if you are not using an NMSU account. If you don't have an NMSU account, you might have to use a computer at the library.) Do some searches on theology and ethics (or "God and ethics", or "religion and morality", etc.) Find FIVE entries for sources that contain the complete abstracts of the sources.

Present a bibliographical entry for each of your sources. Then paste the abstract below the respective bibliographical entry. Use some popularly endorsed method for constructing bibliographical entries. Be consistent. Make sure that your document is stylistically correct in all respects.

 

• The quiz must be typed. The Euthyphro portion of the quiz should be ONE page long (double-spaced), TWO pages at most.
• No quizzes will be accepted after 10:30 am on Wednesday, January 28.
• People hoping to get satisfactory grades on their quizzes should write in a professional manner. The style (punctuation, syntax, spelling, usage, etc.) must be clean. Feel free to read my old teacher's essay about punctuation and syntax on the class web site.
• Also: Feel free to submit a draft of your quiz to me via email (MS Word .doc attachments preferably) for pre-grading commentary. It's unlikely that I'll be able to comment on drafts sent to me after Wednesday, January 21.