object is the result of an action that an action is performed on it, but rather that an action being performed on an object makes that object the result of that action. It should follow then that something is pious because it is dear-to-gods, that piety is the result of being dear-to-gods. This is Euthyphros' third definition of pious and had he pressed that point, Socrates would not have been able to draw his conclusion to the contrary. Instead, Socrates suggests the opposite, that something is pious and that is what causes it to be dear-to-gods. Euthyphro agrees with Socrates, which is very puzzling. Plato's reason for doing this is not at all clear, although in following with the rest of the dialogue the reader knows that it is deliberate. What is important from this passage of the dialogue is that Pl
             ...