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LIT-1856: 24.120 Moral Psychology, XIX: Identification

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Properties4
StatusActive — read 2026-10-30 (NOTE-1455) in full, from MIT OpenCourseWare's copy of the handout (https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/24-120-moral-psychology-spring-2009/7084f5f927420e445327e4c1fdecfc30_MIT24_120s09_lec19.pdf), a course page under ADR-064. Worth reading as a two-page secondary report of Frankfurt's "Identification and Wholeheartedness" (LIT-575, unread), with page references that fall within the 1988 reprint (pp. 159–176; the handout does not name the edition) for decisive identification, its "resonance" and the "outlaw" desire, and as a teacher's objections: Frankfurt gives no analysis of the decision, and a decision need not make one wholehearted. Read it knowing that it is lecture notes, questions as much as claims.
Tagsself-governance, agency
Cited as “paper” byNOTE-1455 — Holton — Identification (24.120 lecture XIX)
Cited as “source” byTHEORY-029 — A higher-order attitude cannot make a motive the agent's own by its order alone: any attitude specified without presupposing the agent's participation can itself be disowned, and any specified to include it presupposes what it was meant to explain

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Holton, R. (2009). 24.120 Moral Psychology, lecture handout XIX, “Identification”. MIT OpenCourseWare, Spring 2009.

Key takeaways

  • In “Identification and Wholeheartedness” identification is a decision, and is “acceptance, not … endorsement” of the desire.
  • The decision is unanalysed: Frankfurt “hasn’t done it in terms of desires”, so the Hobbesian model of the will is left behind.
  • A decision need not make one wholehearted: intransitive pairwise decisions, or outlawing desires one by one, give no guarantee of a consistent remainder.

Why this is here

THEORY-029’s promote_when names “Identification and Wholeheartedness” (LIT-575) first, as the reply that answers the regress directly, and the essay is Unavailable. This handout reports the essay’s account of decisive identification with page references.

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