>>Why did you write Appendix B? Why do we begin to run into problems when >>we go beyond defining IM as someone's desire to engage in a particular >>task? Why the tangle? >>>My specific question: >>>I loved your book "The Brighter Side of Human Nature." What, if any, is >>the relationship between altruism and intrinsic motivation? > >I wrote Appendix B because I wanted to give persistently curious readers a >chance to think about the concept of intrinsic motivation in more depth, to >make it clear that I understood that the intrinsic vs. extrinsic polarity >was oversimplified, and finally as an excuse to prod myself to think about >the question more systematically. I left it as an Appendix because I don't >think it is absolutely necessary to grapple with the complications >concerning the nature of intrinsic motivation in order to understand the >harm of extrinsic inducements, which is, after all, the central point of >the book. > >Altruism is a good case in point. For all intents and purposes, an >altruistic commitment to the well-being of someone else can be >distinguished from an extrinsic reason to help that person. But for those >who want to push such issues to the limit (i.e., those as obsessive as I >am), one can tease apart an intrinsic delight in the action from a purely >altruistic concern for the other, which is neither an intrinsic motivation >to perform the task itself nor an extrinsic motivation to get money, >praise, or some other reward. (This possibility I left to a footnote to >the Appendix (note 18 on p. 350), which is about as obscure as you can get >while still writing in English.) >
Roxanne Abbas
Abbas Compensation Strategies rabbas@comp-web.com http://www.comp-web.com