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Full Idea
A second-order desire is a desire about what kind of desires you want to have. ....Some philosophers have argued that we should associate a person's second-order desires with her 'true self'.
Gist of Idea
Maybe a person's true self is their second-order desires
Source
Tuckness,A/Wolf,C (This is Political Philosophy [2017], 2 'What is')
Book Ref
Tuckness,A / Wolf,C: 'This is Political Philosophy' [Wiley Blackwell 2017], p.35
A Reaction
Presumably the buck stops at these second-order desires, though we might request an account of their origin. 'What sort of person do I want to be?' looks like a third-order question. I don't even want to be a saint. Self is nothing to do with desires?
| 22019 | Consciousness of an object always entails awareness of the self [Fichte] |
| 5381 | In seeing the sun, we are acquainted with our self, but not as a permanent person [Russell] |
| 7106 | The Ego is not formally or materially part of consciousness, but is outside in the world [Sartre] |
| 9264 | Persons are distinguished by a capacity for second-order desires [Frankfurt] |
| 9266 | A person essentially has second-order volitions, and not just second-order desires [Frankfurt] |
| 4881 | Being a person must involve having second-order beliefs and desires (about beliefs and desires) [Dennett] |
| 2506 | If I have a set of mental modules, someone had better be in charge of them! [Fodor] |
| 3223 | Self-consciousness may just be nested intentionality [Rey] |
| 20589 | Maybe a person's true self is their second-order desires [Tuckness/Wolf] |