In-order-to motive

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Revision as of 12:12, 6 September 2011

This term is used by Alfred Schütz to point out the different kinds of motives. According to Schütz, we can distinguish a 'because motive' from an in-order-to motive. The latter refers to the capacity of individuals to act as they like. 'Schutz's distinctions here are relevant to contemporary debates about whether freedom is compatible with determinism since from the perspective of the lived in-order-to motive, one experiences oneself as free and morally responsible'(Barber, 2010). Thus, in contrast to the deterministic because motive, the 'in-order-to' motive allows freedom of action and corresponds in this way with indeterminism (Campbell, 1991, p.204-205).

But this implies of course some vision of future goals to be accomplished, therefore this is a goal-oriented way of acting. We are going to the lectures of this course to prepare for examination and not because the conditions were beneficial.

According to Schutz (Werlen, personal communication, 28-09-2010) we only have the in-order-to motives in sight, when we are acting, the because motives give no access to the subjective meaning (it took place in the past). In other words when acting as a free human actor we are consciously trying to achieve a certain goal. For the because motives we might say, that they are valid for unconscious actions.

References:

Barber, M. (2010). Alfred Schütz. in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy found at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schutz/ on 19-10-2010

Campbell, T. (1981). Seven theories of Human Society. Clarendon Press, Oxford

Werlen, B. (2010). Personal communication 28 sept. 2010

Published Lisanne Dols (0822701) & Lorenzo Goudsmits (0827991)