Normativity, I believe, is very different from motivating force. Neither includes, or implies, the other. Other animals can be motivated by their desires and beliefs. Only we can understand and respond to reasons.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the unique capacity of humans to understand and act upon reasons, distinguishing us from other animals who are driven solely by desires.
Derek Parfit highlights the distinction between normative considerations and motivational factors. While both humans and other animals can be driven by their desires and beliefs, humans have the unique ability to comprehend and react to reasons. This ability to understand norms and reasons is what sets human motivation apart from that of other species and reflects our capacity for rational thought and moral reflection.
In practice
In a philosophy class discussing the differences between human and animal cognition.
There is certainly a universal and unconscious propensity to impose a rhythm even when one hears a series of identical sounds at constant intervals... We tend to hear the sound of a digital clock, for example, as "tick-tock, tick-tock" - even though it is actually "tick tick, tick tick.
I believe that everyone has to construct a mental model of what they are and where they came from and why they are as they are, and the word soul in each person is the name for that particular mish-mash of those fully formed ideas of one's nature.
I learnt that fame is an illusion and everything about it is just a joke. I'm far more dangerous now, because I don't care at all.
It is the individual's task to differentiate himself from all the others and stand on his own feet. All collective identities . . . interfere with the fulfillment of this task. Such collective identities are crutches for the lame, shields for the timid, beds for the lazy, nurseries for the irresponsible. . . .
The solution of the social problem is in liberty.
I would say it simply: No one can give that which he doesn't personally possess, which means we cannot transmit the Holy Spirit in an effective way, render the Spirit perceptible, if we ourselves aren't close to the Spirit.
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