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Single Idea 23736

[filed under theme 20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 1. Acting on Desires ]

Full Idea

We should concede that a desire may be had in the absence of its being felt.

Gist of Idea

A person can have a desire without feeling it

Source

Michael Smith (The Moral Problem [1994], 4.5)

Book Ref

Smith,Michael: 'The Moral Problem' [Blackwell 1994], p.109


A Reaction

A nice observation. An example he gives is a father's desire that his child does well. Smith is discussing Hume's account of motivation in terms of desires and beliefs.


The 17 ideas with the same theme [desires and emotions as the main motivator of action]:

Pleasure and pain guide our choices of good and bad [Democritus]
It is an error that reason should control the passions, which give right guidance on their own [Hobbes, by Tuck]
The will is just the last appetite before action [Hobbes]
Whenever we act, then desire is our very essence [Spinoza]
Humans have variable dispositions, and also power to change their dispositions [Ellis]
Preferences can result from deliberation, not just precede it [Searle]
In the Humean account, desires are not true/false, or subject to any rational criticism [Smith,M]
A pure desire could be criticised if it were based on a false belief [Smith,M]
A person can have a desire without feeling it [Smith,M]
Subjects may be fallible about the desires which explain their actions [Smith,M]
Humeans (unlike their opponents) say that desires and judgements can separate [Smith,M]
Goals need desires, and so only desires can motivate us [Smith,M]
If first- and second-order desires conflict, harmony does not require the second-order to win [Smith,M]
Objective reasons to act might be the systematic desires of a fully rational person [Smith,M]
Motives involve desires, but also how the desires connect to our aims [Zagzebski]
Maybe your emotions arise from you motivations, rather than being their cause [Stout,R]
For an ascetic a powerful desire for something is a reason not to implement it [Stout,R]