Editing Ethics (section)

=== Moral motivation ===
On the level of psychology, metaethics is interested in how moral beliefs and experiences affect behavior. According to [[Internalism and externalism#Moral philosophy|motivational internalists]], there is a direct link between moral judgments and action. This means that every judgment about what is right motivates the person to act accordingly. For example, [[Socrates]] defends a strong form of motivational internalism by holding that a person can only perform an evil deed if they are [[ignorance|unaware]] that it is evil. Weaker forms of motivational internalism say that people can act against their own moral judgments, for example, because of the [[weakness of the will]]. Motivational externalists accept that people can judge an act to be morally required without feeling a reason to engage in it. This means that moral judgments do not always provide motivational force.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|DeLapp|loc=§ 5. Psychology and Metaethics}} | {{harvnb|Sayre-McCord|2023|loc=§ 6. Morals, Motives, and Reasons}} | {{harvnb|Rosati|2016|loc=Lead section, § 3. Moral Judgment and Motivation}} | {{harvnb|Reilly|1977|pp=101–102}} | {{harvnb|Milevski|2017|p=3}} }}</ref> A closely related question is whether moral judgments can provide motivation on their own or need to be accompanied by other [[mental states]], such as a [[desire]] to act morally.<ref>{{harvnb|Rosati|2016|loc=Lead section, § 3. Moral Judgment and Motivation}}</ref>