FROLIO – Formalizable Relationship-Oriented Language-Insensitive Ontology

Welcome to FROLIO – a new attempt to merge philosophy and the "semantic web". This website is continually under construction - please send suggestions for improvements to the author.

Relationship Major Category - "Motivation"

General Meaning

This category relates an Action, Procedure, Policy or Strategy (role A) to the Idea, Emotion, Wish, or Goal (role B, an abstract concept) that triggers it. In some cases it represents the unconscious or unreasoned prior influence on Logic, and also represents what happens as a consequence of Volition.

Category Icon

The icon represents a carrot being dangled in front of a person - as it might be dangled in front of a horse, as a metaphor for motivation.

Relationship Role Diagram (for key to the letter codes click here)

The A role (3 top left icons) represents an Action, Strategy or Policy; the B role (3 top right icons) is the trigger (Wish, Emotion or Goal) that motivates the A role. Role C (top middle, jumping across a chasm) is an intermediary that represents a commitment. The I (tool) and M (process) roles here may be indirect, either the means of developing the motivation (e.g. announcing one's commitment), or the means of generating the Action, Strategy or Policy. The remaining roles are as normal.

A ;
A C B B

A

B

I

M

P

Z

T
X

Y

Relationship Types in this Category

A first group, code “Md”, is concerned with direct human or animal motivation. An Action:

is motivated by a goal
is triggered by an emotion, wish or idea
is a consequence of a commitment, or maybe even a natural process such as the second law of thermodynamics

A second group, code “Mg”, is concerned with goal orientation. In this context, “cause” means “what for” rather than “why” – the latter is addressed in Logic/explanation “Le”.

serves the cause of - the action happens in order to further the cause
works towards the goal of - there might be more than one action that might be so oriented

The third group, code “Mc” is concerned with a person being indirectly motivated through being committed to a Contract, Policy, Theory, Strategy, Religion or Ideal. A human (or animal):

is committed to - a human, animal (or group of these) is emotionally and personally committed to the “ism”.
is contracted to - an agreement

A Commitment may itself be triggered or motivated by Goals, Emotions etc, and in turn an Action may be motivated by a Commitment - so a Commitment is a sort of half-way house. A person joining a socialist party might be triggered by a sense of injustice at the poor deal of people at the bottom of the heap in a society. Helping in an election campaign might then be triggered by commitment to the socialist party.

Examples

Direct
A pack of wolves is motivated by hunger to attack other animals. I was motivated by pity for the tsunami victims to send a donation. My change of heart was triggered by the TV coverage. John's putting in extra hours at work was driven by his wish for promotion. Peter's buying an extra heater was triggered by his wish to be less cold in the house in winter. Freda's marching in the anti-abortion demonstration was a consequence of her commitment to the Catholic church.

Justification
The current downsizing project serves the cause of future company survival. The reorganisation works towards the goal of better customer service. Occasional eruptions in New Zealand are in consequence of plate tectonic earth movements.

Commitment
Freda became committed to the Catholic church because of a vision she experienced. Jim Jones was committed to worldwide communism.

Links to other Categories (these cross-links now fixed!)

Arrangement is in some order with	Classification is a	Distinguishing is different from	Interaction communicates with
Logic is deduction from	Motivation is motivated by	Partitioning is part of	Representation represents
Sensation is experienced by	Transformation is changed from	Utility is useful for	Volition is wanted by