Introduction When I first read the Euthyphro, I imagine that my reaction was much the same as it is for most people who read it – utter bafflement as to what the point of this semantic exercise was. It is, at first reading, not entirely clear what the purpose of the dialogue is, not in the least because it ends at an impasse. So naturally I looked to wiser men than myself to explain what the dialogue was about but that, too, turned out to be less than fruitful.
My issue with the thesis is that given the Absolute as inevitable it seems that all actions will be coherent with. That would make it an empty formalism.
That ties into my greater disapproval of the Neoplatonic idea of One, as what is it supposed to be a proof against? Most conflicts are between parts of One, so should they not happen?
Positing a unity far away doesn't really help us with immediate concerns
The point is that this unity is true, but it doesn't seem like it's true, and we suffer needlessly because of that ignorance. Death, for instance, only seems terrifying when we think of it as a negation of life, when we think that we can only have one or the other. When we realize that there is no such duality between life and death, then we no longer fear it in the same way. This nonduality, when realized to any degree, changes our whole perspective on things to an equal degree, and with it our whole mode of being in the world. It's subtle but profound, and only truly makes sense from direct experience.
Good analytic piece.
My issue with the thesis is that given the Absolute as inevitable it seems that all actions will be coherent with. That would make it an empty formalism.
That ties into my greater disapproval of the Neoplatonic idea of One, as what is it supposed to be a proof against? Most conflicts are between parts of One, so should they not happen?
Positing a unity far away doesn't really help us with immediate concerns
The point is that this unity is true, but it doesn't seem like it's true, and we suffer needlessly because of that ignorance. Death, for instance, only seems terrifying when we think of it as a negation of life, when we think that we can only have one or the other. When we realize that there is no such duality between life and death, then we no longer fear it in the same way. This nonduality, when realized to any degree, changes our whole perspective on things to an equal degree, and with it our whole mode of being in the world. It's subtle but profound, and only truly makes sense from direct experience.