All action aims at the good. An inquiry into the fundamental principle of Plato's Theory of Action

柏拉图在几个场合声称，我们所有的行为都是为了追求善。虽然所有的学者都强调了这一主张的重要性，但对信息技术及其涉及的问题还没有进行系统的讨论。我的项目旨在通过对这一说法的彻底和仔细的审查来填补这一空白。在我的项目中，我打算展示IT究竟主张什么，并提出柏拉图为这一主张提出的论点的重建。例如，这是否像许多学者认为的那样，当我们行动时，我们寻求获得我们认为好的东西，尽管事实上它们很可能根本不好？或者，柏拉图的意思是说，通过行动，我们在更强烈的意义上渴望善，因为我们所有的行动的目标不仅是表面上的善，而且是实际上的善。如果柏拉图确实持后一种观点，那么他的论点似乎完全荒谬，因为我们经常做和渴望我们知道是坏的事情，或者最终证明不是好的事情，尽管我们的想法不同。但也有一种较弱的解读，根据这种解读，所有的行动都是为了那些看起来很好的东西，这远不是不言而喻的。一种可能的反对意见是，我的行为可以很好地有意识地瞄准坏的事情——这确实是当代哲学家所持的立场。然而，柏拉图在几个不同的场合似乎预设了信息技术是真实的，并为这一主张提出了论证。在我的探究中，我将分以下四个步骤进行：第一步，我探究柏拉图讨论IT背后的动机。之后，我将讨论柏拉图关于行为的目的论结构的论述，并考察行为与指导行为的善之间原则上可能存在的关系。在第三步中，我将根据学术文献讨论理解IT所说内容的不同方法。在讨论这个主题的研究时，我将发展我自己对IT的阅读。在最后一步，我处理那些与我的项目相关的柏拉图欲望理论的方面，以决定我对IT的阅读是合适的还是另一种阅读更有利。我的项目背后的主张是，IT是柏拉图的行动理论的基本原则，柏拉图在他工作的所有阶段都坚持这一论点。此外，我认为，对信息技术的适当理解只有在它被视为一种以不同方式与不同形式的人类欲望相关的论文时才有可能。

On several occasions Plato makes the claim that all our actions seek the good (=IT). Although all scholars have emphasized the importance of this claim, a systematic discussion of the IT and the problems it involves has not yet been made. My project aims at filling this gap through a thorough and careful examination of this claim. In my project I intend to show what exactly the IT asserts and to present a reconstruction of the arguments Plato presents for this claim. Does this claim for instance state, as many scholars have thought, that when we act, we seek to obtain things which we think are good, although in fact they might very well be not good at all? Or, does Plato mean to say that by acting we desire the good in a stronger sense, as all our actions aim at things that not only appear to be, but actually are good. If Plato indeed holds the latter view, then his thesis seems utterly absurd, since we quite often do and aspire things that we know are bad or that in the end turn out not to be good, although we thought differently. But also the weaker reading, according to which all action aims at things that merely appear to be good, is far from being self-evident. One possible objection would be to say that with my actions I can intentionally aim at bad things quite well - a position that indeed is held by contemporary philosophers. Nevertheless, Plato on several different occasions seems to presuppose that the IT is true and to present arguments for this claim. In my inquiry I will proceed in the following four steps: In a first step, I inquire into Plato's motivation behind discussing the IT. After that I deal with Plato's account of the teleological structure of action and examine the relation that in principle may exist between an action and the good by which this action is guided. In my third step, I discuss the different ways of understanding what the IT says according to the scholarly literature. In discussing the research on this topic I will develop my own reading of the IT. In the final step, I deal with those aspects of Plato's theory of desire that are relevant for my project in order to decide whether my reading of the IT is appropriate or another reading is more favourable. The claim underlying my project is that the IT is the fundamental principle of Plato's Theory of Action and that Plato holds this thesis throughout all phases of his work. Furthermore, I argue that an appropriate understanding of the IT is only possible if it is conceived as a thesis that relates to different forms of human desire in different ways.