The Foundation Of Desire

Though the desires of the human heart might be numerous and elaborate, one thing about them is quite simple.  There is not an infinite number of desires competing for dominance at any given time.  In fact, there cannot be.  Not only are these desires finite in quantity, but the chain they form is also finite in length, having both a beginning and an end.

Introspection can reveal a deep network of impulses and priorities arranged in a way that reflects one’s core desires.  At the end of the chain, as well as throughout the majority of it, desires must reflect deeper desires, with the strongest ones existing at the start of the chain.  The weaker one is, the further from that beginning point it will be.  Weaker desires are merely servants of the stronger ones.

This illuminates a crucial fact about the will and desires.  There is not always a deeper reason behind a human motive or behavior.  At some point, a person wants something simply because he or she wants it; there cannot be an infinite regression of desires, or else no desire could actually manifest itself, since there would always be an infinite number of desires before it.  At the foundation of desire there is a natural simplicity.  Here, at the beginning of the chain, lies the bedrock of human motivation.

Certainly, this bedrock is not utterly immutable.  It can be altered.  A person’s core desires might shift dramatically or gradually evolve over the duration of a lifetime.  Experiences, worldviews, and willpower can all play a part in these changes.  However, that bedrock will always influence the fundamental motivations of a person, and, though someone can have conflicting desires, a person cannot actively do anything without the consent of their own will.

None of this means that free will does not exist, of course, because free will exists by necessity in rational minds.  One is free to act upon an impulse or abstain from doing so.  One can even change core desires through the voluntary application of the power of the will, though those core desires will inevitably influence a person’s motivations to some degree.

Desire of some sort is deeply intertwined with human experiences, and desire has an identifiable foundation.  Its foundation can be introspectively and logically quantified.  It can be experienced, guided, and cooperated with.  But humans are not slaves to every desire they encounter.  The actions motivated by desire can be controlled.