Philosophy and Literature

Euthyphro is frequently dissected for its philosophical dilemmas regarding the relation of the god’s love to holiness, and whether justice is a part of the holy or the converse. But how can we understand the dialogue as a literary whole? This paper exhibits five ways in which it can be so understood: Euthyphro is the subjectivist patsy (both a literalist and divine command theorist) playing against Socrates’s natural law-like moral objectivity; the dialogue is elenchic because the dilemmas are true; the dialogue is elenchic, but the dilemmas are false; the dialogue produces a double irony; the irony is in the existence of the dialogue.