Metaethics and Theories of Motivation

Abstract

One of the central questions in recent philosophical debate is whether motivation to act comes from cognitive or non-cognitive mental states. This question clearly is distinct from that of what is the meaning of moral sentences. Nevertheless, I think that an understanding of the nature of motivation is essential to an adequate account of moral language. For although not all motivated (and intentional) actions are susceptible to moral assessment, yet every action which is morally judged must be a motivated (as well as an intentional) one. In what follows I will try to defend ethical non-descriptivism by arguing for the internalist conception of motivation on which it is based.