Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Why Bother? A Historical And Philosophical Analysis Of Motivation, Sara Badrani

Keck Undergraduate Humanities Research Fellows

While there are several competing theories of motivation, the exact nature of motivation and how it has been used to make impactful changes in history has not been well studied. It is apparent there have been various attempts to determine the exact nature of motivation; however, upon further analysis, there seems to be inapplicable flaws in these arguments. As a result, this leads to various dissatisfying theories of motivation that are unable to clearly answer the exact nature of motivation. Looking at both Humean and anti- Humean theories, my research hypothesis will essentially identify the inaccuracy of both arguments. As …

Why Did You Really Do It? Examining The Distinction Between Kinds Of Reasons, José Ángel Gascón

OSSA Conference Archive

Studies in cognitive psychology have shown that many of our actions seem to be often influenced by irrelevant features of the environment, of which we are not aware. But exactly what reasons has the psychological research uncovered? In philosophy, a distinction has been made between normative, motivating, and explanatory reasons. Hence it is necessary to determine which of them have been revealed as the real reasons for our actions by the psychological research.

The Good, The Bad, And The Necessity Of Empathy In Ethics, Emma Loftus

Scripps Senior Theses

Although empathy has been implicated in both academia and pop culture as nearly analogous to morality, some philosophers and psychologists have taken issue with this assessment. It has been argued that from an ethical perspective, empathy is biasing, myopic, and perhaps more trouble than it is worth. In this paper, I first address whether empathy is a necessary baseline trait for having some degree of ethical motivation. Based on the differing moral experiences of sociopaths and autistic individuals, as well as empathy’s unique ability to motivationally bridge the gap between self and other, I conclude that empathy is a required …

Dissonance Reduction In Nonhuman Animals: Implications For Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Cindy Harmon-Jones, Nick Haslam, Brock Bastian

Animal Sentience

We review the evidence for dissonance reduction in nonhuman animals and examine the alternative explanations for these effects. If nonhuman animals engage in dissonance reduction, this supports the original theory as proposed by Festinger (1957) over the revisions to the theory that focused on the self-concept. Evidence of animal sentience, including dissonance reduction, may be a source of cognitive dissonance.

Motivation And The Primacy Of Perception, Peter A. Antich

Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy

In this dissertation, I provide an interpretation and defense of Merleau-Ponty's thesis of the primacy of perception, namely, the thesis that all knowledge is founded on perceptual experience. I take as an interpretative and argumentative key Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological conception of motivation. Whereas epistemology has traditionally accepted a dichotomy between reason and natural causality, I show that this dichotomy is not exhaustive of the forms of epistemic grounding. There is a third type of grounding, the one characteristic of the grounding relations found in perception: motivation. I argue that introducing motivation as a form of epistemic grounding allows us to see …

Responsibilist Virtues And The ‘Charmed Inner Circle’ Of Traditional Epistemology, Jason Baehr

Philosophy Faculty Works

In Judgment and Agency, Ernest Sosa takes “reliabilist” virtue epistemology deep into “responsibilist” territory, arguing that “a true epistemology” will assign “responsibilist-cum-reliabilist intellectual virtue the main role in addressing concerns at the center of the tradition.” However, Sosa stops short of granting this status to familiar responsibilist virtues like open-mindedness, intellectual courage, and intellectual humility. He cites three reasons for doing so: responsibilist virtues involve excessive motivational demands; they are quasi-ethical; and they are best understood, not as constituting knowledge, but rather as putting one “in a position” to know. I elaborate on and respond to each of these …

Moral Sense Theory And The Development Of Kant's Ethics, Michael H. Walschots

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation investigates a number of ways in which an eighteenth century British philosophical movement known as “moral sense theory” influenced the development of German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s (1724-1804) moral theory. I illustrate that Kant found both moral sense theory’s conception of moral judgement and its conception of moral motivation appealing during the earliest stage of his philosophical development, but eventually came to reject its conception of moral judgement, though even in his early writings Kant preserves certain features of its conception of moral motivation. In the mature presentation of his moral philosophy Kant offers detailed objections to moral sense …

Rethinking Empathy: Value And Context In Motivation And Adaptation, O'Neal Buchanan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The broad aim of this dissertation is to present an alternative approach to empathy research. The three main questions raised are: What is empathy? How do its component psychological processes become active and operate together? How did empathy evolve? In answering these questions, most researchers have started from a conventional approach that can be described as focusing on short-term phenomena “inside the head” of an individual, evidence that is gathered exclusively in a laboratory environment, and neurocognitive processes that are universally shared by all humans.

A problem with the conventional approach is that it makes social and normative issues in …

Weakness Of Will: An Inquiry On Value, Michael Funke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One dominant scientific view holds that willpower is a type of muscle which can be weakened through use in the short term and strengthened through use over time. However, evidence from neuroscience, social psychology and behavioral economics suggest that willpower is regional, subverted through desire and strengthened by strategy--these are features a muscular account would not predict. It is better to think about willpower as a skill with a physiological component. Willpower strategies extend the brute effort of self-control through the use of reason and have the practical effect of increasing self-regulation. Willpower is "worth wanting" because there is a …

Moral Motivation And The Authority Of Morality: A Defense Of Naturalist Moral Realism, Lily Eva Frank

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Moral realism has been continuously accused of positing the existence of queer properties, facts, judgments, and beliefs. One of these queer features is supposed to be the normative force of morality-that is the way in which morality guides our actions. Critics of moral realism argue that nothing else in the world has this feature. This is a reason to doubt that moral facts and properties exist at all. This objection can be interpreted in at least two ways. One way to interpret it has to do with moral motivation, this is the internalism objection. The other has to do with …

Journal For The Philosophical Study Of Education Vol 2 (2014), Allan Johnston, Guillemette Johnston, Samuel Rocha

Research Resources

Welcome to the second volume of the Journal for the Philosophical Study of Education (JPSE), a peer-reviewed journal put out by the Society for the Philosophical Study of Education (SPSE). JSPE aims to publish papers that approach the field of education from a philosophical perspective, in the broadest sense of the term. Some of the papers considered for publication may be selected from works presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Philosophical Study of Education by members of that organization, after these papers undergo peer review and revision. However, this journal does not limit its content to …

Justification For Conscience Exemptions In Health Care, Lori Kantymir, Carolyn Mcleod

Philosophy Publications

Some bioethicists argue that conscientious objectors in health care should have to justify themselves, just as objectors in the military do. They should have to provide reasons that explain why they should be exempt from offering the services that they find offensive. There are two versions of this view in the literature, each giving different standards of justification. We show these views are each either too permissive (i.e. would result in problematic exemptions based on conscience) or too restrictive (i.e. would produce problematic denials of exemption). We then develop a middle ground position that we believe better combines respect for …

Pure Cognitivism And Beyond, Attila Tanyi

Attila Tanyi

The article begins with Jonathan Dancy’s attempt to refute the Humean Theory of Motivation. It first spells out Dancy’s argument for his alternative position, the view he labels ‘Pure Cognitivism’, according to which what motivate are always beliefs, never desires. The article next argues that Dancy’s argument for his position is flawed. On the one hand, it is not true that desire always comes with motivation in the agent; on the other, even if this was the case, it would still not follow that desire is identical with the state of being motivated. When this negative work is done, the …

Moral Conviction, Matthew Pianalto

Matthew Pianalto

We often praise people who stand by their convictions in the face of adversity and practice what they preach. However, strong moral convictions can also motivate atrocious acts. Two significant questions here are (1) whether conviction itself — taken as a mode of belief — has any distinctive value, or whether all the value of conviction derives from its substantive content, and (2) how conviction can be made responsible in a way that mitigates the risks of falling into dogmatism, fanaticism, and other vices. In response to the first question, I suggest that conviction has instrumental value that derives from …

Wilderness Beauty: A Means To Resolve Volitional Doubt, Brian T. Scalise

Eleutheria: John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Academic Journal

Doubt is often part of Christian spiritual life. Matured doubt will influence the will (the volition) so as to keep the Christian doubter from acting like a Christian or even desiring the Christian life. This essay seeks to construct a theory designed to engage and help resolve volitional doubt by use of wilderness beauty. This theory incorporates three areas of study—Land and Leisure Management, Abraham Maslow’s metamotivation theory, and Jonathan Edwards' aesthetic theology—to demonstrate the uniqueness and usefulness of wilderness beauty for resolving volitional doubt. Subsequent to the construction of the theory, practical suggestions for its application are given.

A Response To Bruni And Sugden, Julie A. Nelson

Economics Faculty Publication Series

An article by Luigino Bruni and Robert Sugden published in this journal argues that market relations contain elements of what they call ‘fraternity’. This Response demonstrates that my own views on interpersonal relations and markets – which originated in the feminist analysis of caring labour – are far closer to Bruni and Sugden's than they acknowledge in their article, and goes on to discuss additional important dimensions of sociality that they neglect.

The Sensory Intention -- Art, Motif, And Motivation: A Comparative Approach, Yves Millet

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Philosophers like Gilles Deleuze claimed a new outlook for aesthetics asking for a rethinking of the traditional separation between the theory of sensibility and the theory of art. From a comparative standpoint, this article examines the concept of 'sensory intention' which in our view might be able to bridge the gap between acting and doing and therefore to link the theory of sensibility and the theory of art.

Traditional Chinese art, and more specifically the script style caoshu[草書],has been chosen as the medium through which to illustrate the theoretical discussion. Analysis of traditional Chinese thought on art allows us to …

A Response To Bruni And Sugden, Julie A. Nelson

Julie A. Nelson

An article by Luigino Bruni and Robert Sugden published in this journal argues that market relations contain elements of what they call ‘fraternity’. This Response demonstrates that my own views on interpersonal relations and markets – which originated in the feminist analysis of caring labour – are far closer to Bruni and Sugden's than they acknowledge in their article, and goes on to discuss additional important dimensions of sociality that they neglect.

Altruism, Impartiality And Moral Demands, Jurgen De Wispelaere

Jurgen De Wispelaere

Advocates of altruism maintain that altruism is an inherently beneficial and, therefore, morally desirable motivational disposition towards furthering other people’s good. In this paper I dispute this claim by showing various ways in which altruism might come into conflict with plausible moral demands. The underlying problem is always one of moral myopia, an altruistic blind spot that interferes with altruism’s capacity to track moral demands. To resolve the moral dilemmas associated with altruism, I argue, we need to embed altruistic dispositions in a more comprehensive moral framework. I propose that a theory of impartiality might succeed in embedding altruism in …

Libertarianism, Motivation, And Rights, Samantha Brennan

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.

Trust As Noncognitive Security About Motives, Lawrence C. Becker

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.