I think the hidden motives are basically rationalisation, I have found myself singlethinking those motives in the past nowadays I just bring those reasons to the centre-stage and try to actually find whether they align with my commitments instead of motivated stopping. Sometimes I just corner my motivated reasoning (bottom line) so bad (since it’s not that hard to just do expected consequentialist reasoning properly for day to day stuff) that instead of my brain trying to come up with better reasoning it just makes the idea of the impulsive action more salient, some urge along the lines of “think less and intuit/act more”.
Also I have personally used this concept of “intellectual masturbation” to divert discussions away from potentially philosophical bomb to more relevant topics it’s much better to reduce the philosophical jargon in day to day conversations lol.
I think the hidden motives are basically rationalisation, I have found myself singlethinking those motives in the past nowadays I just bring those reasons to the centre-stage and try to actually find whether they align with my commitments instead of motivated stopping. Sometimes I just corner my motivated reasoning (bottom line) so bad (since it’s not that hard to just do expected consequentialist reasoning properly for day to day stuff) that instead of my brain trying to come up with better reasoning it just makes the idea of the impulsive action more salient, some urge along the lines of “think less and intuit/act more”.
Also I have personally used this concept of “intellectual masturbation” to divert discussions away from potentially philosophical bomb to more relevant topics it’s much better to reduce the philosophical jargon in day to day conversations lol.