The principle of insufficient reason. Merleau-Ponty and a theory of motivation

Authors

  • Jakub Čapek

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26806/fd.v2i1.29

Keywords:

teorie jednání, motivace, fenomenologie, Merleau-Ponty

Abstract

There seems to be a fundamental relation between action and reason: no action without a reason. But does this mean that the reason, once it is given, brings about the action? Can an action have a sufficient reason? The article distinguishes two forms of the sufficient reason: the cause and the premise. The phenomenological theory of motivation argues against the idea “reasons are causes” as well as against the idea “reasons are premises”. The novelty of the phenomenological account of motivation consists not in the assumption, developed by Paul Ricoeur, “reasons are present to a consciousness”, but in the more original analogy developed by Merleau-Ponty between the perceptual motivation on the one side and the practical motivation on the other.

Published

2010-06-06

Issue

Section

Articles