The Euthyphro, on the nature of piety, takes place just before Socrates enters his plea before the king-archon. The diviner-priest, Euthyphro, a man in his mid-forties who will prove inept at grasping piety when Socrates questions him, nevertheless predicts impending events well, fearing that Meletus will harm ‘‘the very heart of the city by attempting to wrong’’ Socrates (Euthphr. 3a7-8), and inferring that Socrates’ spiritual monitor signals religious innovation ‘‘easily misrepresented to the crowd’’ (3b5-9). Socrates replies by zeroing in on the crux: the Athenians would not mind his spiritual monitor or his opinions if he were not imitated by the young (3c7-d2; cf. 2c-d); the reason he is a defendant, he says, is that he does not accept the poets’ stories about the gods’ wrongdoing, ‘‘and it is likely to be the reason why I shall be told I do wrong’’ (6a8-9). Socrates leaves no doubt that the quarreling gods Athenians accept are not the ones he believes in: what he formulates as questions at 6b-c, he states unambiguously elsewhere: ‘‘we can state the truth like this. A god is by no means and in no way unjust, but as just as it’s possible to be’’ (Tht. 176b8-c1). For Socrates, the gods agree perfectly in their goodness, justice, wisdom, etc., and could not come into conflict - something Euthyphro cannot accept.
But Socrates’ insistence that what the Athenians are most concerned about is how the youths are affected introduces the topic of education that plays a role in the background. Athenian males of the propertied classes sought higher education in their late teens. Since success in democratic public life was enhanced by the ability to influence the citizenry in the Assembly and courts, many studied with rhetoricians to learn the latest techniques of effective public speaking. In the latter fifth century, however, new intellectual influences from abroad began making headway in Athens among the young: sophists and natural scientists. The former could outdo the ordinary rhetoricians by teaching new ideas about what constitutes a good life or a good state, and some of them taught logic-chopping and hair-splitting as well, to make ‘‘the worse into the stronger cause’’ (Ap. 19b5-c1), encouraging the young to get ahead without regard for justice or even custom. Natural scientists too seemed a threat to social order, giving naturalistic explanations for natural phenomena, and were lampooned repeatedly in comedy. Over the years, as Athens suffered war, plague, loss of empire, and defeat, its citizenry became increasingly alarmed that the new learning was somehow to blame, and anti-intellectualism grew.
World History
