Internalism and externalism - Wikipedia
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Moral Motivation (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
The Stoic counterexample — added 2026-08-22
Hume’s motivation argument (Treatise 3.1.1.6; EPM Appendix I) assumes a two-faculty psychology: cognition represents, and a separate conative state supplies the push. Motivational internalism then looks like a puzzle — how could a bare belief move anyone?
The Stoics are one of the strongest historical counterexamples, because they reject the taxonomy rather than picking a side within it. An impulse (hormē) just is assent to an impulsive impression (phantasia hormētikē) — an impression presenting some action as appropriate right now. Judgment on this account is intrinsically motivating, so no separate conative faculty is needed and there is no inert cognition waiting for a push.
The cost: the reply is load-bearing on Stoic physics, because value judgments are true or false only against a rationally ordered nature.
Full treatment → Can a Feeling Be Wrong - Stoics vs Hume and Hutcheson > 6. Where the sentimentalist still lands a punch · Hume, Stoicism, and Whether Reason Can Motivate Moral Action · Graver Audit - Correcting the Stoic Side of the Hume Comparison