Euthyphro Day 2

Here is a blog post where I explain the various different definitions of 'pious' in Euthyphro.

In this one, I explain the consequences of either solution to Euthyphro's dilemma.

In class today, I talked about the importance of conditional statements, such as "If P, then Q", or "If something is pious, then it is loved by the gods".  Conditional statements can be used to express causal relationships (e.g., If it rains, then the sidewalk gets wet).  We can also use conditional statements to express the relationship between genus and species: all poodles are dogs, all squares are rectangles and all OC citizens are CA citizens.  Conditional statements are important in philosophy.  Consider this argument:

If you are in Irvine, you are in CA.

Las Vegas is not in CA.

Therefore, Las Vegas is not in Irvine

The first premise of this argument is a conditional statement.  Many arguments include conditional statements.  

Consider now the logical form called 'introduction of a biconditional':  

If P, then Q.  

If Q, then P.  

Therefore, P if and only if Q.  

This is a valid logical form that can be used to express a vicious circle.  The problem with a vicious circle is not that it is illogical.  Rather, vicious circles fail to provide any new information.