Psychological Motivation Toward the Good


When I was a kid and I got angry at my brother for something, my parents would often ask me why I did it. Both not knowing exactly what brought me to such haste and aggression, and not wanting to just admit he had made me upset (somehow precipitating the aggression), I responded with “I don’t know” and shrugged it off. But the question remained, that I did not know what motivated my action against my brother when I actually love him. In general, motives are a thing of (mythical) explanation and less of a thing derivative of experimentation. Here is where many, especially the most famous, psychologists tend to exhibit contrariety, especially concerning sexuality. This question of motive has many multivalent causes, and it seems the work that has been done to explore them would suggest as much, but there still remain motives that seem to transcend biology since adaptation is not sufficient to explain them.

As (Catholic) Christians, we are no strangers to believing that we were once a species of harmony and that even though sin removes some of this there still exists some harmony. Capitalism may be considered the best economic system in a “state of the sinner” because it balances our self-interest with the general welfare. Still, altruism lies beyond this since we are not just consumers. Our will to do good does not make sense with evolutionary theory, and yet it exists. Those who oppose this may claim, “Altruism toward kin and similar others evolved to help replicate shared genes. Since ethnic groups are repositories of shared genes, xenophobia is the ‘dark side’ of human altruism.”[1] Still, this does not account for soup kitchens, prison ministry, etc. Most people find such people undesirable to be around, yet some choose to _love_ them. It is precisely because we are repulsed by them that sexual attraction, the will to feel safe, and the will to belong have no hold here. It must be founded in something beyond these. This is hardly surprising since we believe that meaning is not a thing only of the mind. Of course, altruism’s greatest cause is love. In our moral traditions, love and happiness are heavily interrelated, this is psychologically the case as well.[2] The purpose of mirror neurons may also be cited in such an explanation as above i.e. that they serve only the proximate end of raising young and/or detecting fight/flight responses in other creatures. However again, this is beyond such circumstances. Even if one admits that we are relational beings as Aristotle did, it still falls short of explaining the self-sacrificial aspects of love (even for complete strangers). Can the will to adhere to a narrative of self-sacrificing love be explained by biology or is there actually something else involved?

In conclusion, the precise cause of the nobility of human intentions can be known but certainly not by science. Yet, even if we were able to define it, there would be no purity in it, and it would cease to exist even more than relativism has made it. In this way scientism, (as distinguished from real science) can become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. "It is not possible for [x], therefore, nothing that makes [x] seem plausible is valid/acceptable". What Christians mean by heroic virtue is rarely attained, but for those who possess it, they are not mentally ill because they are more whole than we. We are a people of harmony and self-sacrifice; deep down we know this to be true. We are repulsed by those that do not care for others (or even who care for disordered was as we do when we are angry), because we know there is a necessary good lacking in their hearts (whether we are willing to admit it or elsewise). We also find this to be the case at the other end of the spectrum. For when you make authentic contact with some whose life is resplendent with joy, peace, and love; we notice in our selves the want that is present.

Desirest of what blinds us,
Good beyond all telling.
Attached to what confines us,
our doom thereby spelling.

Still ourselves and long all the same.
It is the good we seek in every effort.
Familiar, and yet surprised at our Savior slain.
Prone to leave the love of our Spouse's court.

Crawling and panting while so many are standing.
Transformation beyond imagination.
Becoming one with Christ, who is with our hearts wrestling.
Son of God we take our true station.


FN:
  1. J. Philippe Rushton, "Ethnic Nationalism, Evolutionary Psychology and Genetic Similarity Theory.," Nations & Nationalism 61, no. 4 (2005), 489.
  2. Fan, Joshua Knobe and Yarrow Dunham Yang, "Happiness Is From the Soul: The Nature and Origins of Our Happiness Concept," Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 150, no. 2 (2021), 276.
Written by Carter Carruthers

Most Viewed Posts

Psychological Therapies and Catholic Anthropology: A Comparative Analysis

Law & Virtue: Freedom Refined for True Goodness

The Deeply Biblical Celebration: Part 1-The Start of Mass