The weaker-sensepremise — that a rational or virtuous agent would only be motivated to act if the actual agent has some actual desire that could produce that motivation — is false.
The desires, goals, or reasons that drive someone to act in a particular way.
Premise
A premise is a statement or fact that you assume to be true as a starting point for reasoning or making an argument. Think of it as the foundation or building block you use to reach a conclusion—for example, "All dogs are animals" and "My pet is a dog" are premises that lead to the conclusion "My pet is an animal." Premises are essentially the evidence or claims you offer before drawing a final conclusion.
Rational agent(as used in epistemology and philosophy of mind)
A person or being that makes decisions by thinking logically and consistently, rather than acting on emotion or instinct.
Weaker-sense premise(in logical argumentation)
A specific version or interpretation of an argument that makes a less strict claim than alternative versions of the same argument.
desire(Plato's account of desire in the Meno and Symposium)
A motivational state analogous to hunger — a felt lack or want directed toward its object
virtuous agent(Describes the perfectly moral person being discussed)
A person who consistently acts morally and has developed good character traits like honesty, kindness, and courage.
If we were to read the former, weaker sense of the possibility of motivation into this second premise, we get the claim that a rational, or perhaps virtuous, version of the agent would only be motivated to act in some way if the actual agent has some actual desire that could produce that motivation. This premise would be false if agents could be irrational or vicious precisely because they lack certain desires, a common view we discussed in section 1.3. Suppose we try instead to understand the f
Extraction notes
Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks