Euthyphro

What Hacker News says

1. DataDaoDeJan 2026
   Plato's works surrounding Socrates' death: Phaedo, Crito, Euthyphro, The Apology.

   Its fascinating to discover how many thoughts and ideas they had which are still relevant in our societies today. Also, they are incredibly readable, its like taking part in on a conversation among friends.

   thread
2. tiberious726Jul 2023
   Great recommendations! I'd pick The Genealogy of Morality as a better intro to Nietzsche, tho my favorite is far and away The Gay Science.

   I wouldn't pick Meditations as being a intro classical philosophy tho, the Stoics were very much their own school of thought, and not the primary one that carried forward into later eras. It's a fascinating school of thought, but more also a diversion in getting up to speed (another great side-path from the same era is Pyrrhonian Skepticism!). Aurelius is also really late chronologically (and frankly not a philosopher at all... The modern equivalent would be a celebrity publishing a self-help book, still an extremely fascinating historical document tho).

   I'm a huge fan of the Alan Bloom version of Plato's Republic. But if we're getting specifically into Plato, I'd feel remiss if I didn't mention the Euthyphro too.

   There is also a _lot_ to be said in favor of reading the history of philosophy in rough order. It's a conversation through the millennia, and you can't truly understand what an author is saying unless you understand the context they are replying to. Eg. Kant is frankly unintelligible (and subject to wild misinterpretation) unless he is read as a rebuttal to Hume's continuation of Descartes's protect (as Kant himself says in the intro to the first critique).

   Re analytic philosophy: In the words of my thesis advisor "breaking philosophy down into the categories of analytic and continental is like breaking down cars into the categories of those-with-four-wheel-drive and those-made-in-Europe".

   Show morethread
3. kashyapcJun 2021
   > Walking through my school library many years ago, I walked past a copy of Plato’s Republic, walked back, picked it up, and started reading.

   If you've never read Plato before, I'd suggest not to start with the Republic — it is diving into the deep end of Plato. I'm saying this as someone who has recently completed Republic[1], and thoroughly enjoyed it (and fumed at it in some places).

   Instead, get familiar with some of the earlier, and famous, Socratic dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology (this is referring to a "formal defense", i.e. apologia; not regret), Crito, et al — they're shorter, give you a great flavour of Socrates, and will prepare you for the Republic. An excellent English translation here is the Five Dialogues[2], a fine selection by Hackett Publishing. I'm happy that I started with this.

   [1] There are many English translations; I'll strongly recommend the "Reeve Edition". This translation recasts the entire dialogue as direct speech, this makes it easy to keep track of the speakers. Ensure it is this Reeve-only edition (because Reeve also revised an earlier translation by Grube): https://www.hackettpublishing.com/republic

   [2] https://www.hackettpublishing.com/five-dialogues

   Show morethread
4. pyuser583Jun 2021
   Euthyphro by Plato.
   thread
5. pyuser583Dec 2020
   My journey in philosophy began by reading Plato’s Euthyphro.

   It’s a great place to start.

   http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/euthyfro.html

   thread
6. 0klDec 2019
   I heavily recommend the Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Republic, and Phaedrus (in particular) - it’s said all of philosophy is a footnote on Plato until Nietzsche. I think only a summary of Schopenhauer (like a penguin selection or something) is all that’s needed - he moves past Schopenhauer pretty quickly.

   I enjoyed Camus due to it being an attempt to move beyond Nietzsche and offer something more digestible, but I never moved past the Nietzsche/Plato combo for my personal philosophies (with a heavy dash of stoicism)

   Re forms: I find that Plato’s forms are one of the most used mental models I engage with - especially working with software.

   Show morethread