Allameh Tabatabai and Finiss on Moral Motivations: A Comparative Study

In the psychology of ethics, there is a question concerning the true nature of moral motivations; are they internal or external motivations, are they self-controlled or not? The contemporary Christian scholar, John Finiss, claims with an internalistic approach that moral motivations come from our natural capabilities and faculties, so that they cannot be self-controlled. Allameh Tabatabai also emphasizes on the human capabilities in the context of moral motivations, with a similar internalistic approach, but he explains the realization of moral motivations as a result of the combination of the natural desires and rationality. However, there is differences between their approaches to internalism and externalism and their explanations of moral motivations in the psychology of ethics. Furthermore, they determine different things as the main factor in moral motivation. Finiss regards a motivation as moral only when it is towards the basic goods; Allameh Tabatabai considers moral motivations as ones that are in keeping with the Divine consent. In this paper, the thoughts of these two thinkers on the moral motivations are studied comparatively by an analytical methodology.