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Motive and Rightness

Online ISBN:
9780191725401
Print ISBN:
9780199594948
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Motive and Rightness

Steven Sverdlik
Steven Sverdlik
Southern Methodist University
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Published online:
1 May 2011
Published in print:
1 February 2011
Online ISBN:
9780191725401
Print ISBN:
9780199594948
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book investigates the deontic relevance of motives. That issue is formulated in this question: can the motive of an action ever be the reason, or part of the reason, that it is morally right or wrong? It is argued that the answer is ‘yes.’ Various arguments in the literature, found in deontological writers like Kant, and Ross, as well as in utilitarians like Mill, seem to deny that motives are ever relevant deontically. Some of these arguments seem at best to show that motives are never part of the reason why an action is obligatory. The nature of motives is examined and a definition offered. Various theoretical approaches in substantive ethics are examined to see if they can give a plausible account of when motives are relevant deontically: traditional forms of consequentialism; Hurka's ‘intrinsic consequentialism’; the Kantianism of the Formula of Universal Law; the Kantianism of the Formula of Humanity; and the virtue ethics of Hursthouse and Slote. It is argued that traditional consequentialism gives the most plausible account of the deontic relevance of motives. This means that there are cases where the motive of an action makes it obligatory for the agent to perform it. A chapter is devoted to questions in volitional psychology about the availability of motives, especially the sense of duty. The findings are used to address some casuistical questions about motives, for example, whether the feeling element in emotional motives is morally significant, and whether unconscious motives can be relevant deontically.

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