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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Stressing reward and punishment cannot make people more v... — Carmelics
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    Home/Moral Responsibility
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Stressing reward and punishment cannot make people more virtuous, and may make them less so

    Moral ResponsibilityVirtue Ethics
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Kant argued that actions performed from inclination toward duty have moral worth, while actions performed merely for reward reveal heteronomous motivation.
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    • 2.A moral agent whose virtuous conduct is contingent on external sanctions will abandon that conduct whenever sanctions are removed or unenforceable.
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    • 3.Genuine virtue requires that good affections be intrinsically motivating; virtue conditioned on reward is therefore not virtue but calculated compliance.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory demonstrates empirically that extrinsic rewards systematically undermine intrinsic motivation through a crowding-out effect.
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    • 2.If reward and punishment supplant intrinsic moral motivation, the agent's character becomes structurally dependent on external governance rather than internal virtue.
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    • 3.Aristotle's account of eudaimonia requires that virtuous action flow from stable character dispositions, not from instrumental calculation about consequences to oneself.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.People who dwell on reward and punishment become overly concerned with their own self-interest and private interest
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    • 2.Excessive self-interest insensibly diminishes affections towards public good and the interest of society
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    • 3.Excessive self-interest introduces a narrowness of spirit incompatible with virtue
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    Topics

    Moral ResponsibilityVirtue Ethics

    Connections

    2 topics

    Social Contract1 linkedConsequentialism1 linked

    Related

    A moral agent whose virtuous conduct is contingent on external sanctions will ab...Aristotle's account of eudaimonia requires that virtuous action flow from stable...Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory demonstrates empirically that extrinsi...Excessive self-interest insensibly diminishes affections towards public good and...
    +5 moreShow less
    Excessive self-interest introduces a narrowness of spirit incompatible with virt...Genuine virtue requires that good affections be intrinsically motivating; virtue...If reward and punishment supplant intrinsic moral motivation, the agent's charac...

    Similar

    Dwelling on reward and punishment diminishes affections towards public...83%Focusing on reward and punishment leads people to prioritize self-good...82%Taking a human life is vicious in general, yet may be virtuous as a fo...79%A person will be happier if virtuous rather than vicious79%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: shaftesbury
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    People who dwell on reward and punishment are more likely to become overly concerned with their own “Self-good, and private Interest,” which must “insensibly diminish the Affections towards publick Good, or the Interest of Society and introduce a certain Narrowness of spirit” (C 2.58). Stressing reward and punishment cannot make people more virtuous, and it may very well make them less so (C 1.97–98, 2.52–56). It is for this reason that Shaftesbury has one of his characters in The Moralists say
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Kant argued that actions performed from inclination toward duty have moral worth...
    People who dwell on reward and punishment become overly concerned with their own...
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit