Human Motives: Hedonism, Altruism, and the Science of Affect

Motivational hedonism claims that everything we do is done in pursuit of pleasure and to avoid pain. Carruthers argues that the best account is a representational one, where pleasure represents its object as good and displeasure represents it as bad. This results in pluralism about human motivation, making room for both genuine altruism and intrinsic motives of duty.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 26 January 2024
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Motivational hedonism, also known as "psychological hedonism," asserts that our actions are driven by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain and displeasure. While this concept has always been appealing, many philosophers and experimental psychologists have challenged its validity. In his book, Human Motives, Dr. Carruthers presents a novel approach to motivational hedonism that utilizes decision-science and the science of affect to construct a form that has successfully evaded previous critiques.

According to this perspective, we make decisions by anticipating and responding to the alternatives affectively, with the pleasure/displeasure component of affect serving as the common currency of decision-making. However, it is not necessary to believe that the alternatives will bring us pleasure or displeasure in the future. Rather, our feelings about these options become bound into and integrated into the future-directed representation of the options, influencing our perception of their attractiveness or repulsiveness.

The nature of pleasure and displeasure plays a crucial role in determining the validity of motivational hedonism. Carruthers argues that the best account is a representational one, where pleasure represents its object (nonconceptually, in a perception-like manner) as good, and displeasure represents it (nonconceptually) as bad. This results in pluralism about human motivation, allowing for both genuine altruism and intrinsic motives of duty.

Human Motives is a well-written and thoroughly scientifically informed book that has implications for many areas of philosophy and cognitive science. It will be of interest to anyone seeking to understand the foundations of human motivation. By integrating decision-science and the science of affect, Carruthers provides a novel and compelling perspective on human behavior that challenges traditional assumptions and offers new insights into the complex nature of human motivation.

Weight: 498g
Dimension: 240 x 162 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198906131