The Last Days of Socrates

Read this as suggested by Ted Gioia in his 12-month immersive course in the Humanities (https://substack.com/home/post/p-146315791).

Euthyphro’s dilemma was new to me: is what is good loved by the gods because it is good, or is it good because it is loved by the gods?

If it’s the latter, the definition of ‘good’ seems too arbitrary to be satisfactory. If it’s the former, something else must determine what makes good things good; what?

From Crito, I mostly got the discussion of whether and to what extent and a citizen has the right to disobey laws and orders that he finds unjust. Socrates was sentenced to death on charges that he finds unjust. Nevertheless, he refuses his friend Crito’s offer to help him escape, as he argues that civilization and society cannot exist if citizens do not adhere to the laws of society. This naturally must have limits (e.g., what if reporting Jews to the authorities so they can be murdered is the law?), but where they are is not obvious.

The last dialogue in the book introduces the concept of Platonic forms, which I vaguely remember from high school philosophy. Beautiful things all share a characteristic, namely, beauty or the characteristic of being beautiful. Does this exist beyond the things that exhibit this characteristic, or is just a convenience of language?