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20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 3. Acting on Reason / b. Intellectualism

[all actions are guided entirely by reason]

31 ideas
For Socrates, virtues are forms of knowledge, so knowing justice produces justice [Socrates, by Aristotle]
Socrates was the first to base ethics upon reason, and use reason to explain it [Taylor,R on Socrates]
All human virtues are increased by study and practice [Socrates, by Xenophon]
The wise perform good actions, and people fail to be good without wisdom [Socrates, by Xenophon]
How could someone who knows everything fail to act correctly? [Anon (Diss)]
If goodness needs true opinion but not knowledge, you can skip the 'examined life' [Vlastos on Plato]
Courage is knowing what should or shouldn't be feared [Plato]
Cynicism was open to anyone, and needed neither education nor sophistication [Diogenes of Sin., by Grayling]
Even the foolish may have some virtues [Aristippus young, by Diog. Laertius]
Bad people are just ignorant of what they ought to do [Aristotle]
Some people are good at forming opinions, but bad at making moral choices [Aristotle]
For Socrates virtues are principles, involving knowledge, but we say they only imply the principle of practical reason [Aristotle]
Jesus said learning was unnecessary, and only the spirit of the Law was needed [Jesus, by Johnson,P]
The wicked want goodness, so they would not be wicked if they obtained it [Boethius]
Reason is too slow and doubtful to guide all actions, which need external and moral senses [Hutcheson]
Reason alone can never be a motive to any action of the will [Hume]
Evil enters a good will when we believe we are doing right, but allow no criticism of our choice [Hegel, by Houlgate]
People always do what they think is right, according to the degree of their intellect [Nietzsche]
Our judgment seems to cause our nature, but actually judgment arises from our nature [Nietzsche]
The 'motive' is superficial, and may even hide the antecedents of a deed [Nietzsche]
A mother cat is paralysed if equidistant between two needy kittens [Russell]
Not all actions need motives, but it is irrational to perform troublesome actions with no motive [Foot]
I don't understand the idea of a reason for acting, but it is probably the agent's interests or desires [Foot]
Most Enlightenment thinkers believed that virtue consists ultimately in knowledge [Berlin]
Moral right is linked to validity and truth, so morality is a matter of knowledge, not an expression of values [Habermas, by Finlayson]
The essence of humanity is desire-independent reasons for action [Searle]
Only an internal reason can actually motivate the agent to act [Searle]
Intellectualism is an excessive emphasis on reasoning in moral philosophy [Burnyeat]
Intellectualism admires the 'principled actor', non-intellectualism admires the 'good character' [Flanagan]
It is a fantasy that only through the study of philosophy can one become virtuous [Hursthouse]
Maybe the explanation of an action is in the reasons that make it intelligible to the agent [Wilson/Schpall]