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    Reason alone can never be a motive to any action of the w... — Carmelics
    Statements
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    Home/Moral Responsibility
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Reason alone can never be a motive to any action of the will.

    Moral ResponsibilitySkepticism
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Abstract (demonstrative) reasoning involves a priori inferences about relations of ideas and cannot influence the will directly.
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    • 2.Probable reasoning helps us discover causal relations among objects of experience, but such causal knowledge cannot motivate action on its own.
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    • 3.Knowing that certain objects are causes and others are effects is of no concern to us if both causes and effects are indifferent to us.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Kant's categorical imperative demonstrates that pure practical reason generates the moral law independently of any antecedent desire or inclination.
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    • 2.Agents can recognize a rational obligation (e.g., keeping promises) and act from that recognition alone, without any prior feeling of pleasure or pain motivating compliance.
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    • 3.If even one case exists where reason supplies both the rule and the motivating force, Hume's universal claim that reason 'alone' never motivates is falsified.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Hume's argument conflates the causal-mechanical sense of motivation with the normative sense, in which recognizing a reason can itself constitute a motivating state.
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    • 2.Nagel argued in 'The Possibility of Altruism' that motivated desires can be derived from rational recognition of facts, meaning desire follows reason rather than preceding it.
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    Topics

    Moral ResponsibilitySkepticism

    Connections

    3 topics

    Consequentialism2 linkedTruth & Knowledge1 linkedCausation1 linked

    Related

    Abstract (demonstrative) reasoning involves a priori inferences about relations ...Agents can recognize a rational obligation (e.g., keeping promises) and act from...Hume's argument conflates the causal-mechanical sense of motivation with the nor...If even one case exists where reason supplies both the rule and the motivating f...
    +5 moreShow less
    In order to be motivated to act, we must first anticipate pleasure or pain from ...Kant's categorical imperative demonstrates that pure practical reason generates ...

    Similar

    Reason alone cannot oppose a passion in the direction of the will.84%Reason by itself is unable to give rise to a motive.75%Free will, understood as an originative cause that is itself uncaused,...73%The will is not compelled by a thing's being good.73%

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    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: kant-hume-morality
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    According to the first argument, “reason alone can never be a motive to any action of the will” (T 2.3.3.1). Abstract (or demonstrative) reasoning, which involves a priori inferences and judgments pertaining to relations of ideas, cannot influence the will, but only assist us in our pursuit of an end we already have. For example, probable reasoning helps us discover causal relations among objects of experience conducive to the realization of pre-selected ends, but such information about cause an
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    Details

    Knowing that certain objects are causes and others are effects is of no concern ...
    Nagel argued in 'The Possibility of Altruism' that motivated desires can be deri...
    Probable reasoning helps us discover causal relations among objects of experienc...
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit