The Teleology of Action in Plato's Republic

Description

In many discussions of ancient philosophy, teleology is acknowledged as an important theme. How do we act for a particular end or purpose? One common answer describes humans as acting with the intention of achieving a goal. A person selects particular actions with the thought that these actions will lead to that goal. Andrew Payne accepts that this is one good answer to our question but proposes that it is not the only one. In Plato's Republic, Socrates appeals to a different understanding of how humans act for the sake of ends as they live together in political communities and pursue knowledge. As they carry out activities that are necessary for human flourishing, their actions can produce unintended results that signal the full completion of human capacities. For example, performing the actions of a just individual can help promote the establishment of a just society as an unintended result. Such unintended results qualify as ends or purposes of human action. This volume fully explores this functional teleology of action in Plato's Republic. Cover The Teleology of Action in Plato’s Republic Copyright Contents Acknowledgments 1: Varieties of Teleology 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Intentional Teleology and Natural Teleology 1.3 The Limits of Intentional Teleology: Phaedo 96-99 1.4 The Functional Teleology of Action: An Overview 2: The Teleology of Action in the Ascent Passage of the Symposium 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The Form of Beauty as Unintended End of the Ascent 2.3 The Function of Eros 2.4 Teleology in the Ascent Passage 2.5 Objections to the Functional Teleology of the Ascent 2.6 Functional Teleology, Natural Teleology, Intentional Teleology 3: Justice, Function, and Partnerships in Republic 1 3.1 Introduction: A Positive Account of Republic 1 3.2 Crafts and Powers 3.3 The Refutation of Polemarchus 4: The Defense of Justice in Republic 1 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Thrasymachus on Justice 4.3 The Refutation of Thrasymachus 4.4 Socrates’ Positive Arguments for Justice 4.5 The Significance of Book 1 for the Republic 5: The Division of Goods and the Completion of Justice 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Praising Justice for Itself and the Division of Goods 5.3 Justice Completed: The Turn to the Best City 5.4 The Teleological Structure of Activities and Goods in the Best City 6: Teleology and the Parts of the Soul 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Parts of the Soul: Activities, Fields, Ends 6.3 The Rational Part: Calculation and Practical Judgment 6.4 What Sort of Conflict? Partition of the Soul in Republic 4 6.5 The Unity Problem 6.6 Unity of the Soul as End of Action 7: The Defense of Justice and the Teleology of Action 7.1 Republic 4: Just Souls, Just Actions, and the Just City 7.2 Justice as a Class 2 Good in Republic 4 7.3 Justice and Just Actions 8: The Form of the Good I: Vision and Knowledge in Three Images 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Three Images of the Form of the Good: An Overview 8.3 Vision in the Timaeus 8.4 Vision and the Images of the Good 8.4.1 Vision and the Image of the Sun 8.4.2 Vision and the Divided Line 8.4.3 Vision and the Image of the Cave 8.5 Vision and Knowledge 9: The Form of the Good II: Dianoia in the Divided Line 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Some Questions about Dianoia 9.3 Hypotheses 9.4 Images and Intelligibles 9.5 Images for the Sake of Intelligibles 9.6 Dianoia and Dialectic Appendix to Chapter 9 10: Studying Mathematics for the Sake of the Good 10.1 Introduction 10.2 The Propaedeutic Studies 10.2.1 Arithmetic 10.2.2 Plane Geometry 10.2.3 Astronomy 10.3 Commensurability, Dialectic, and Giving an Account of the Hypotheses 10.4 Conclusion Bibliography Index Locorum Index