Moral Motivation presents a history of the concept of moral motivation. The book consists of ten chapters by eminent scholars in the history of philosophy, covering Plato, Aristotle, later Peripatetic philosophy, medieval philosophy, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Kant, Fichte and Hegel, and the consequentialist tradition. In addition, four interdisciplinary "Reflections" discuss how the topic of moral motivation arises in epic poetry, Cicero, early opera, and Theodore Dreiser. Most contemporary philosophical discussions of moral motivation focus on whether and how moral beliefs by themselves motivate an agent (at least to some degree) to act. In much of the history of the concept, especially before Hume, the focus is rather on how to motivate people to act morally as well as on what sort of motivation a person must act from (or what end an agents acts for) in order to be a genuinely ethical person or even to have done a genuinely ethical action. The book shows the complexity of the historical treatment of moral motivation and, moreover, how intertwined moral motivation is with central aspects of ethical theory.

AcknowledgementsContributorsIntroductionIakovos Vasiliou1. Plato and Moral MotivationIakovos VasiliouReflection: Moral Motivation: Achilles and Homer's IliadNancy Worman2. Aristotle on Moral MotivationSusan Sauvé Meyer3. A Later (and Non-Standard) Aristotelian Account of Moral MotivationBrad InwoodReflection: Cicero on Moral Motivation and Seeing (How) To Be GoodJoy Connolly4. Moral Motivation in Medieval PhilosophyJonathan Jacobs5. Act and Moral Motivation in SpinozaSteven NadlerReflection: Moral Motivation and Music as Moral JudgeChadwick Jenkins6. Locke on Pleasure, Law, and Moral MotivationPhillip Mitsis7. Hume on Moral MotivationJacqueline Taylor8. Kant and Moral Motivation: The Value of Free Rational WillingJennifer Uleman9. Moral Motivation in Post-Kantian Philosophy: Fichte and HegelAngelica NuzzoReflection: Moral Motivation and the Limits of Moral Agency in Literary Naturalism: Dreiser's Sister CarrieAnne Diebel10. Consequentialism, Moral Motivation, and the Deontic Relevance of MotivesSteven SverdlikBibliographyIndex