ABSTRACT
Future ethics poses more stringent problems of motivation than other branches of practical philosophy because there is a more striking discrepancy between the motivation to accept principles of future ethics and the motivation to act in accordance with them than in other areas of ethics. Furthermore, future ethics poses special difficulties in rightly identifying situations to which its principles are relevant. In principle, there are three kinds of motives from which a morally required act can be done: from moral motives, from quasi-moral motives, and from non- moral motives. A morally required act is done from moral motives if it is done precisely because it is morally required, i.e. from conscientiousness or a feeling of duty. Roughly the same holds for non-moral motivations potentially supportive of moral responsibilities to the distant future. The advantage of indirect motivations from a practical point of view is their more reliable emotional basis and their potentially greater effectiveness in guiding behaviour.
