A Note on Motives, Consequences and Value

The intuitive notion is that a motive can be identified with an estimated consequence of an action that an agent places an especially high value on. For example, in writing an essay, a student may recognize that there are a number of likely consequences of his action, but of this set the consequence that he values most highly (e.g., getting a high mark) may be said to constitute his "motive." Let us say that the agent's estimate of the likely consequences is the set C, composed of consequences C1, C2 , , . . ., Cj. If there is a certain consequence, Cm, that the agent values above all other estimated consequences, then Cm is identical to his motive, or his primary motive. Actually, to allow for compound motives, it is better to let the motive be a subset of C rather than a member of C. Thus we can say "His motive was to get a high mark and win his professor's esteem." Now we can define motive as follows. Intuitively, let C1, C2, . . ., Cj be the set of consequences estimated by the agent, x. Let Mvx be the value of M for x.