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Socrates Holiness

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“What exactly is holiness?”—This is a question that was brought up in Plato’s infamous “Euthyphro”, which addresses the question of what is holy and unholy through the interactions and conversation between Socrates and Euthyphro. Before diving into the analysis and evaluation of the conversation that occurs between the two, it is necessary to first develop a background between the characters. Euthyphro can be classified as an arrogant and somewhat idiotic priest who is awaiting a trial to prosecute his own father for the murder of a slave. It is at the entrance of the law courts that Euthyphro encountered Socrates, a well-recognized interpreter of religion and theology. Socrates notices Euthyphro and converses with the man. Socrates has one main goal that he hopes to achieve through this conversation: To discover the definition of the holy. It is from this point onward that the essay will cover analysis of the conversation in greater detail, uncovering the philosophy of holiness. To begin, the holy must have the form of the holy. Form is often an expression of something’s essence, and essence is usually categorized as the original defining characteristic of an item. If you were to remove the essence from something, then it would simply cease to exist as that thing. So, if the holy must have the form of the holy, then this then informs us that the definition of holiness must capture/attain everything in total that is holy. It is similar to the idea of “all or nothing”.

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