more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
My own view is that moral justification must be capable of motivating, but not in virtue of reliance on pre-moral motives.
Gist of Idea
Morality must be motivating, and not because of pre-moral motives
Source
Thomas Nagel (Equality and Partiality [1991], Ch.5)
Book Ref
Nagel,Thomas: 'Equality and Partiality' [OUP 1995], p.45
A Reaction
This may well be the core and essence of Kantian moral theory. I'm inclined to think of it as 'Kant's dream', which is of ultra-rational beings who are driven by pure rationality as a motivator. People who fit this bill tend to be academics.
| 168 | To understand morality requires a soul [Plato] |
| 5026 | Animals lack morality because they lack self-reflection [Leibniz] |
| 3954 | Immorality is not in the action, but in the deviation of the will from moral law [Berkeley] |
| 5599 | Without God, creation and free will, morality would be empty [Kant] |
| 21415 | Duty is impossible without prior moral feeling, conscience, love and self-respect [Kant] |
| 2902 | Healthy morality is dominated by an instinct for life [Nietzsche] |
| 20739 | Levinas took 'first philosophy' to begin with seeing the vulnerable faces of others [Levinas, by Aho] |
| 6450 | Morality must be motivating, and not because of pre-moral motives [Nagel] |
| 4284 | All moral life depends ultimately on piety, which is our recognition of our own dependence [Scruton] |