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Are merit and appreciation instrumental aims?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2026

Blaine J. Fowers Open the ORCID record for Blaine J. Fowers [Opens in a new window]
Blaine J. Fowers*
Affiliation:
Department of Educational and Psychological Studies, University of Miami, Coral Gables, USA bfowers@miami.edu
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

This commentary responds to Kruglanski et al.’s paper, which theorizes that love is one means that can result in significance. The commentary’s first focus is whether love is well conceptualized as an instrumental activity (a means-end relation) and concludes that a constitutive-ends conceptualization is necessary (love helps to constitute significance). Secondly, the evidence base for their hypotheses appears thin.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 49 , 2026 , e10
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

Fowers, B. J. (in press). The centrality of friendship in human life: Virtue, evolution, and flourishing. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fowers, B. J. (2015). An Aristotelian analysis of the structure of human action. In Martin, J., Sugarman, J., & Slaney, K. (Eds.), The Wiley handbook of theoretical and philosophical psychology: Methods, approaches and new directions for social science, (pp. 70–84). Wiley and Sons.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowers, B. J. (2010). Instrumentalism and psychology: Beyond using and being used. Theory & Psychology, 20, 102–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowers, B. J., Selim, M., Kiknadze, N. C., Sanabria, M. M. (2025, August). To what degree is well-being assessed as an entirely subjective variable? Poster presented at the 133rd Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Denver, CO.Google Scholar