Acts, Motives and Morality - Two accounts of motives for working in a shelter for down and outs.

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Martha Lovatt.  Mat No. 0308053.  Tutor, Jim Mawby

Acts, Motives and Morality

Two accounts of motives for working in a shelter for down and outs are given. One from Mary who works there ‘not for the fun of it’ but because she feels that she ‘ought to do something to help those whose lives are in a mess’ and thinks that she has a duty to help those worse off. The other account is from John who volunteers due to the fact that he enjoys the work there so much. He loves ‘to see the gratitude in their faces’ and says that he feels ‘a sort of love’ for them. In this essay I am going to assess whose reason is more morally praiseworthy – John’s or Mary’s or if there isn’t anything morally speaking to choose between them.  

One way of looking at this question is by assessing whether the motive from which you act contains moral worth. Kant distinguishes between 3 different types of motives which he considers to be sufficient, these are:

  1. For ones own interest; for example a person who is tempted to steal but then sees a security camera and decides not to steal in case they get caught. They may have done the morally right thing by not stealing but they have only acted out of self interest not because it was the morally right thing to do.
  2. Immediate inclination; this kind of motive could be for example someone feeling guilt when they commit a morally wrong act. Or a person helping someone in need due to the compassion they feel.
  3. The third is somebody acting morally just because it’s the morally right thing to do, which Kant calls ‘The Motive of Duty’
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Kant states that the only motive to have moral worth is acting from the motive of duty. He says there is no moral worth if one carries out a moral act just to advance ones own interests, and no moral worth if one acts out an act due to some feeling that one may have. Therefore from Kant’s theory Mary’s motive is the only one that has any moral worth, as she acts purely from a sense of duty. In John’s case it may be ‘a mere coincidence or accident that what his inclination and natural feelings lead him to ...

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