Moral Motivation A History

Iakovos Vasiliou (ed.): Moral Motivation: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. Paperback 978–019–931,657-1 $32. (i-xiii) + 306 pp. Bhaskarjit Neog Ethical Theory and Moral Practice An International Forum ISSN 1386-2820 Ethic Theory Moral Prac DOI 10.1007/s10677-017-9831-0 1 23 Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science+Business Media B.V.. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be selfarchived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com”. 1 23 Author's personal copy Ethic Theory Moral Prac DOI 10.1007/s10677-017-9831-0 Iakovos Vasiliou (ed.): Moral Motivation: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. Paperback 978–019–931,657-1 $32. (i-xiii) + 306 pp. Bhaskarjit Neog 1 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2017 This is an excellent collection of ten essays and four Reflections that comprehensively surveys the historical trajectories of the idea of moral motivation and its impacts on the study of important moral philosophical issues. The book introduces the reader to an interesting terrain of thoughts, covering a wide range of philosophers from Plato, Aristotle, and Peripatetic medieval thinkers to modern scholars such as Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Kant, Fichte, and Hegel. The constituent articles successfully excavate several contesting positions and ideas embedded in classical texts to help us understand what the idea of moral motivation really stands for and how it has influenced the making of normative ethical theories throughout history. Morality without its motivational force merely refers to a set of external standardprescribing behaviors. Any study of morality that is sensitive to its genuine implications cannot afford to ignore the significance of its motivational force. Emphasizing the truth of this practical insight, the book begins with an insightful introduction to delineate both historical and contemporary issues that have shaped the characters and contours of the concept. Although the essay is slightly shorter than expected for a thematic book like this, it effectively sets the agenda of discussion by enunciating its major themes along with an impressive portrayal of its constitutive parts. An attractive feature of the volume is that it accommodates four refreshing minuscule essays under the title Reflections to underline the significance of moral motivation in our everyday affair of different humanistic endeavors. The first one is on Homer’s Iliad by Nancy Worman and the second one is on Cicero’s De Republica and De Officiis by Joy Connolly. Both these essays explore the intimate relationship between motivation and moral character illustrated in their literature. The third and fourth essays are written by Chadwick Jenkins and Anne Diebel respectively. These two essays are concerned with the field of music, poetry, and novels (Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie) and their impact on shaping and reshaping our * Bhaskarjit Neog [email protected] 1 Centre for Philosophy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India Author's personal copy B. Neog desired moral life. These are interesting inclusions and they offer us a unique glimpse of the interdisciplinary character of the concept. In the first chapter, Plato and Moral Motivation, the editor Iakovos Vasiliou first provides an overall picture of how the different dimensions of moral motivation are expounded and interconnected in Plato’s well-known early and middle ethical dialogues and then puts his focus on Republic in order to investigate the role of knowledge and knowledge of the Forms in the inculcation of moral motivation. Chapter two, entitled Aristotle on Moral Motivation, is an attempt to explore the moral motivation of a virtuous person from an Aristotelian viewpoint by examining the role of her prohairesis (decision) and the feeling of pleasure and pain. The author Susan Meyer draws a distinction between efficient-causal motivation and teleological motivation before aiming to show how pain and pleasure actually function as the latter form of motivation. In chapter three, Brad Inwood critically analyzes a classical peripatetic text, which he calls doxography C, written by an anonymous Greek thinker, with an aim to provide an alternative approach of understanding the significance of being virtuous in the Aristotelian sense. Jonathan Jacob, examines the development of comprehending human moral actions and its motivational aspects in the medieval Jewish and Christian tradition with special focus on Anselm, Scotus, Maimonides, Bahyaibn Pakuda, Aquinas, and Augustine. The chapter also cogently deals with a set other interrelated concepts such as reasons, desires, and free will in the context of morally required actions. In the next chapter on Spinoza’s ‘Ethics’, Steven Nadler, first presents a sketch of a few important concepts such as ‘good’, ‘virtue’ and ‘action’ within the egoistic framework of Spinoza’s thoughts. He then, contrary to the dominant understanding of Spinoza, argues that there is always room for Bnormative discrimination^ among motives, and thus it is important that motives are taken into account while assessing the normative value of a moral action. Philip Mitsis provides a new account of Locke’s views on pleasure, law, and moral motivation. Going against the orthodox interpretation of Locke within the bounds of Cartesianism, Mitsis provides an explanation that derives its base from an older tradition of Epicureans and Stoics. This new reading, the author claims, gives us sufficient evidence to believe why some of the contemporary Bproto-Humean^ interpretations do not accurately understand Locke’s views on motivation. Jacqueline Taylor extensively explores Hume’s views about the role of reasons, sentiments, character, virtue, and pride in motivating people to act morally. As opposed to certain prevailing Humean interpretation, the author here asserts that reason can very well influence the will by forming beliefs on the prospect for pain and pleasure. Recognizing the importance of shame and pride for proper moral motivation, Taylor also elaborates the ways in which the cultivation of certain virtues can effectively contribute to moral motivation. The following chapter focuses on Kant. Jennifer Uleman argues for an interesting position that convincingly shows the motivational efficacy of Kant’s account of rational autonomous willing. The author largely frames her position in line with the works of scholars like Barbara Harman, Paul Guyer and others. Angelica Nuzzo then analyzes the concept of Bmotive^ found in postKantian philosophy, especially in Fichte and Hegel and examines how it has been conceptualized as the Bvalue-determination^ of the action in relation to which the agent’s will is assessed. The last chapter of the collection discusses the deontic relevance of motives in consequentialist theory. Unlike the standard classical position of utilitarian philosophy where motives do not have any bearing on the rightness or wrongness of an action, the author Steven Sverdlik here contends that within the broad contours of consequentialist theory there is room to suggest that motives do occasionally play a role in determining whether an action is right or wrong. Author's personal copy Iakovos Vasiliou (ed.): Moral Motivation: A History. New York: Oxford... Although the articles in the collection are not as neatly compartmentalized as one would have loved to see, it acquires its strength, as the editor himself rightly points out, from the details of each of the individual essay and their unique positions (p.14). Each essay brings originality into the anthology by portraying the historical roots of the concept and its interconnectedness with other philosophical issues and concerns. However, contrary to the impression conveyed in the introduction about the engagement with the contemporary discussion on the theme—whether through a debate between intenalism versus externalism or Humeanism versus anti-Humeanism—none of the articles seems to make any noticeable effort on this front. This is a bit of disappointment. Nevertheless, I believe this is an interesting historical endeavour and it can definitely be suggested as a guide for students and researchers working in the area of moral philosophy in general and moral psychology in particular. The volume has undoubtedly filled a huge gap in the literature on the conceptual engagement in the history of philosophy.