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Full Idea
Besides wanting to fulfil his desire, the person who cares about what he desires wants something else as well: he wants the desire to be sustained.
Gist of Idea
People want to fulfill their desires, but also for their desires to be sustained
Source
Harry G. Frankfurt (The Reasons of Love [2005], 1.6)
Book Ref
Frankfurt,Harry G.: 'The Reasons of Love' [Princeton 2006], p.16
A Reaction
Plato, in 'Gorgias', makes this fact sound like a nightmare, resembling drug addiction, but in Frankfurt's formulation it looks like a good thing. If you want to make your family happy because you love them, you would dread finding your love had died.
| 385 | Some of the pleasures and pains we feel are false [Plato] |
| 4376 | Pleasure and pain are perceptions of things as good or bad [Aristotle] |
| 4374 | For Aristotle, pleasure is the perception of particulars as valuable [Achtenberg on Aristotle] |
| 1835 | True pleasure is not debauchery, but freedom from physical and mental pain [Epicurus] |
| 4847 | Pleasure is a passive state in which the mind increases in perfection [Spinoza] |
| 12962 | Pleasure is a sense of perfection [Leibniz] |
| 5049 | Intelligent pleasure is the perception of beauty, order and perfection [Leibniz] |
| 7197 | Pleasure needs dissatisfaction, boundaries and resistances [Nietzsche] |
| 4550 | Pleasure and pain are mere epiphenomena, and achievement requires that one desire both [Nietzsche] |
| 9230 | People want to fulfill their desires, but also for their desires to be sustained [Frankfurt] |