Slote, Michael - The Tanner Lectures on Human Values

82 <strong>The</strong> Tunner <strong>Lectures</strong> on Human Values
there is no issue of your keeping both copies - every available
copy is needed for the use of the guests. We have a clear example
of misplaced attentiveness and recognizing this, but not wanting
to hurt the feelings of the overeager employee, you simply
say: “No, thank you, I’m doing just fine with the copy I have.” 4
What will be the motivation for rejecting the offered paper?
Surely not the energy it takes to switch papers - it also takes
energy to turn the offer down and a quick comparison of energies
expended is highly unlikely to lie behind the rejection. But neither,
as in so many of our other examples, can the motivation derive
from the fact that the newspaper offered in exchange is seen as
much more than one really needs or cares about. We are supposing
one does really want to have a paper. In the circumstances
mentioned there can only be one reason for turning down the
exchange, the fact that one is fine, or doing fine, ds one is, and
I believe that the motivating force of the status quo is clearly evidenced
in the just-mentioned example. But if the satisfactoriness
of the status quo is a motivating factor in cases where the issue of
going beyond what one needs is irrelevant, I see no reason to deny
it a (reinforcing) role in those cases where the issue of need or
lack of need is also present. <strong>The</strong> person who turns down an afternoon
snack would seem to have two sorts of motivation for doing
so: the fact that he doesn’t particularly need or care about the
snack in question; and the entirely satisfactory nature of his present
state, of the status quo; and when someone uses an expression
like “I am perfectly satisfied as I am” to turn down such a snack,
he invokes both of these factors.
We have thus discovered two different sorts of reasons for
moderate choice within the array of examples I have been using
to defend the non-irrationality of satisficing moderation. <strong>The</strong>re
4 Of course, if one wanted to humor the employee, one might accept the exchange.
But it seems perfectly reasonable to reject the exchange and in that case the
reason will be as I have said. Also, I am not denying that we sometimes go against
the status quo in the name of variety. But where variety is not an issue, as with the
present example, the status quo can play a role in motivating our choices.