Plato at the Googleplex and Socrates

      After reading the latest Plato at the Googleplex, I wanted to talk about a point of interest: Socrates' Euthyphro Argument. 

      It is no mishap that Socrates propounds what has come to be known as the "Euthyphro Argument" while in transit to his trial. The self important Euthyphro certainly advises Socrates that the blessed is to be characterized as "what the divine beings adore." Socrates believes this gets things in reverse: The divine beings cherish the sacred in light of the fact that it is already heavenly, not on the grounds that they see it so. As it were, things are bad in light of the fact that an assumed God supports them; rather, God endorses what is great in itself, free of his will. This Socratic contention undermines the whole thought that religious philosophy can give a premise to ethical quality and opens up a very common mindset about the way of uprightness. As Goldstein comments, this was an original crossroads in the historical backdrop of good theory and surely in the improvement of human progress; it demonstrated the force of immaculate objective thought. The theory-people of today would do good to remember this philosophical accomplishment of the past. 

      To think that people from thousand of years ago were much smarter (insightful) than many of todays people is astonishing. But that is the reality we live in; as our race continues to evolve it is, at the same time, devolving. And that is what the great philosophers of great past knew.