Commentary on Two Articles by H. L. Gray

In this article, I argue that sanctions based upon emotional well-being or upon self-esteem are insufficient for motivating consistently moral behaviour, and furthermore, that they reduce ultimately to hedonism. I argue that this is also the case even in the hypothetical event that all moral action results in heightened self-esteem, and all immoral action results in lower self-esteem. Along the way, I compare self-esteem as moral sanction with the concept of telos, that is, an objectively-given moral purpose, in order to show that moral sanctions can be based upon self-interest without collapsing into hedonism.