Why internalists about reasons should be humeans about motivation

Kent Hurtig

pp. 179-185

in: Charles R. Pigden (ed), Hume on motivation and virtue, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009

Abstract

In "Internal and External Reasons' Bernard Williams suggests that internalism about reasons is compatible with the idea that beliefs can motivate; that is, that internalism is compatible with cognitivism about motivation. However, contrary to Williams' suggestion, I will argue that internalists about reasons are in fact committed to Humeanism about motivation; that is, that internalists about reasons cannot allow that beliefs can motivate in their own right. Since I believe that Humeanism about motivation is false, I think internalism about reasons implies something false, and that therefore internalism about reasons should be rejected. In this essay I shall say nothing about why I think Humeanism is false; rather, my aim will be to establish that internalism about reasons is compatible only with (or makes sense only on) a Humean theory of motivation. To do this, I will try to show that cognitive motivational internalism (CMI) is, at best, an unstable position.

Cited authors

Williams Bernard