Philosophy
Is something good because a god commands it, or does a god command it because it's good?
In Plato's dialogue, Socrates asks the priest Euthyphro this question about piety, and neither answer is comfortable: if good is whatever a god commands, morality becomes arbitrary and could switch overnight; if gods command things because they're independently good, then goodness doesn't actually depend on the gods at all. The dilemma still structures debates about whether morality needs a divine source.
— Plato, Euthyphro — c. 399–395 BC — public domain
Go deeper: get the book →