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Choice and Motivation in Action - School Essays

Choice and Motivation in Action

Choice and Motivation in Action

Why do I choose to eat an apple instead of an orange? Why do I help elderly women cross the street but never give my spare change to homeless individuals? Such questions concerning choice, and more specifically, what prompts me to act on these choices, all revolve around the constitution of particular mental states that motivate my choices and actions.
For example, suppose that you cross the street, because you believe that there is a music store on the other side of the street, and you want to visit a music store (i.e., to pick an a particular music CD). Given that you had this belief (e.g., that there was a store on the other side of the street ...

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crossed the street. So neither this belief nor this desire is enough by itself to motivate you to cross the street.
Accordingly, when we ask what is it leads individuals to choose a particular state of affairs over another, it can be argued that an agent's reason for action can be summarized in this fashion. An agent's (A) motivation for (-ing consists of the set of A's mental states (e.g., a desire and appropriately related means-end belief) that motivated A to (. A set of mental states 'motivates' A to ( if and only if we can give a certain sort of explanation of A's intentionally (-ing, by saying that A intentionally (-ed precisely because A was in those mental states. Although an individual does not ask herself or think out in advance whether she has an appropriate belief-desire pair that disposes her to make particular choices, what is outlined above explains the structure that drives the process of practical ...

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Choice and Motivation in Action. (2015, September 26). Retrieved March 31, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Choice-and-Motivation-in-Action/105016

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Added: 9/26/2015 05:03:01 AM
Category: Miscellaneous
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 375
Pages: 2

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