At the end of class today, we briefly discussed Euthyphro’s statement to Socrates that “I will show them(the jury) clearly, Socrates, if only they will listen to me” (9b) and Socrates’ response, in shorthand, is “They will listen if they think you show them will” (9c). We came to the idea that Euthyphro is basically stating that "If they will listen to me, I will show them clearly" and Socrates is basically stating that "If you show them well, then will listen to you".
What is the difference between these two statements? How does Euthyphro's approach to convincing the jury compare to Socrates' approach?
5 comments:
Ther is a huge difference in what the two are stating.
In what Euthyphro is stating, he is sing that if everyone listens to him, he will most definetely give th clear explanation of the situation. This is also saying that even if they listen, he CAN possible give a ba explanation and lose his case. This is also kind of just waiting for the attention of the crowd, when it should most definetely be that to get the attention of the crowd, you must convince/ grab the attention with interesting statements that are well said and that are very intriguing and very convincing at the same time. This brings me to what Socrates had said. This is exactly what i had stated before when i hadd said that to get the attention of the crowd, you must first fully understand what you are going to say and what you must say to give a full, well said explanation of what is going on and soon enough, everyone will be listening.
Socrates is saying that people will only listen to you if they think that you have a clear argument and state it very well and clearly. Euthyphro is saying that he could win the argument if only the people would listen to his claims. He is saying that if they go in with an atitude to be on his side he will convince them they had made the right choice. This does not end up working in the long run in a lot of situations.
-Liam
The two statements are converses of each other. Euthyphro's statement implies that if he is allowed to get the jury's attention, he will be able to present this case clearly. Socrates' statement implies the opposite, that if Euthyphro presents his case well, the jury will then listen. These approaches differ greatly when using them in court to convince a jury. Using Euthyphro's case is the equivalent of a teacher yelling the answer to a problem. While effective in getting attention, it does nothing to EXPLAIN why the answer is correct. Socrates' version is the equivalent of a teacher actually explaining the answer to a problem. Socrates' method is more effective in court as there is explanation involved. This simple explanation, if it can be provided, might not grab the attention of the jury as much as yelling, but it will no doubt lead in the person's favor.
Euthyphro is saying that he can provide a convincing argument to the jury, but in order for this to happen, they must first pay attention and listen to him. However, Socrates says this is not the case; quite the opposite. He says that the jury WILL listen, but the argument must be such that they would actually be persuaded by it. To the jury, Euthyphro would only be saying "listen to me, listen to me!", while Socrates would be saying, "listen to me BECAUSE..."; so rather than blaming others not listening for his argument failing, one should instead develop a stronger and better presented argument so that others have a reason to listen.
Euthphro is saying if only the jury would give him their full attention and listen to him then he would be able to take his sweet time and explain to the jury. Socrates is saying that people would listen if only he is making it easily for the people to truly understand. I think Euthyphro needs the jury to pay attention because he might hope to find the right words to say along when he is explaining himself because if not, he wouldn't need to take his time or the quietness for him to think if he knew exactly what he is going to say. He would just be able to go straight to the point or gave it some thought beforehand and knew how to grab people's attention right from the start and all throughout his speech. The jury probably did gave him some attention at first but he must have lost them along the way because he is not making any sense or not making it understandable for the jury. So it's Euthyphro's problem that the jury don't listen to him. You can't just expect people to listen to you when you have nothing interesting to say, that it's worth hearing.
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