 One of the principal concerns of Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, et al., was to refute the contention that action is always motivated by self-love. Edwards' attitude toward these attempts is ambivalent. On the one hand, he denies that the truly benevolent are motivated by self-love. On the other, Edwards argues (against, e.g., Hutcheson) that most conscientious and other regarding behavior is, indeed, a form of self-love and that, in any case, acts motivated by rational self-love, conscience, or natural other regarding instincts such as parental affection or pity aren't genuinely virtuous.