Admiration and Motivation

Abstract

What is the motivational profile of admiration? In this article, I will investigate what form of connection between admiration and motivation there may be good reason to accept. A number of philosophers have advocated a connection between admiration and motivation to emulate. I will start by examining this view and will then present objections to it. I will then suggest an expanded account of the connection between admiration and motivation, according to which, admiration involves motivation to promote the value that is judged to be present in the object of admiration. Finally, I will examine the implications of this account for the use of admiration in education.

Telescopes and microscopes of motivation: Emulative goals in admiration and envy differ in abstractness and temporal orientation

“…Some scholars limit the term to comparisons about skill (Algoe & Haidt, 2009;Onu et al, 2016) distinguishing admiration from moral elevation. Here, we follow the usage of the term in a more general way that encompasses admiration for skill and for moral virtue (e.g., Archer, 2019;Schindler, 2019). In recent years, a rising amount of attention has been devoted to conceptualizing and investigating admiration.…”

“…Even though there is agreement that admiration promotes affiliation and pro-social behavior toward people who excel (Algoe & Haidt, 2009;Onu et al, 2016;Schindler et al, 2013), whether and how admiration fuels upward goal pursuit is contested in psychological as well as philosophical treatments. Some scholars have argued that, in contrast to envy, admiration might even lead to complacency rather than effort (for recent reviews, see Archer, 2019;Onu et al, 2016;Schindler, 2019)-perhaps most eloquently expressed in Kierkegaard's (1849Kierkegaard's ( /1980 dictum that "Admiration is happy self-surrender; envy is unhappy self-assertion. "…”

“…Even though recent research has identified how experience and appraisals of admiration and envy differ, it has posed a riddle about the motivational qualities of these emotions. Indeed, one of the most controversial problems (for reviews, see Archer, 2019;Onu, Kessler, & Smith, 2016;Schindler, 2019) in research on admiration and envy is whether both entail emulative goals. Does feeling admiration as well as envy mean being inspired by the superior example of others?…”

Moral exemplars in education: a liberal account

“…The educational implications of Zagzebski's exemplarism have raised several worries aboutamong other things-the extent to which the exemplarist dynamic can be applied to all students (Tanesini 2016) and the limits of her account of moral admiration (Archer 2019;Szutta 2019;Vaccarezza and Niccoli 2019). My main concern is with how we can make the most of exemplarist moral theory for educational purposes.…”

Admiration Over Time

“…Indeed, we might still admire her earlier self – just as might admire a painting before it is badly restored. We might think back to the earlier Fallen Hero with the positive feeling or judgement that is typical of admiration (Archer 2019, p. 146; Ben‐Ze'ev 2001, p. 56). What we are concerned with is the admirability of her later self for her earlier acts, and it seems clear that her later self is not admirable for her earlier acts.…”