Piety and Its Essence in Plato’s Euthyphro

This article analyzes Socrates’ rejection of Euthyphro’s third definition of the pious as that which all the gods love. Socrates distinguishes between two arguments: one that refutes the claim that being loved by all the gods is the essence of piety, and an- other one that shows that the pious and being dear to the gods are not the same. Socrates introduces an explanatory hierarchy: the pious explains being loved by the gods, which in turn ex- plains being dear to the gods. This shows that the pious cannot be defined as being loved by the gods, since it lacks the requisite explanatory profile.