3 ms·

What is desire, and where does it come from?

• LoganDark 4y ago
  Desire is chemicals in the brain, I think. I would say the following argument proves too much: if desire is worthless because it's part of the simulation, and therefore any impression of "free will" is not even free because your ability to express said "free will" was decided upon by the simulation and not yourself... then nothing is worth anything and you have to back up (unless you want to become a nihilist). -Emily
  • mbfg 4y ago
    desire is not at all worthless, it's very important, its just that i find it hard to claim that my conscious self is the cause of that desire.
  • haswell 4y ago
    And if chemicals in the brain are responsible for creating the feeling we experience in consciousness and label desire, what is responsible for the accumulation and mixing of those chemicals? None of the line of reasoning I'm teasing at requires one to conclude that desire is worthless. Many involuntary appearances in consciousness map directly to causal factors and provide clear evolutionary benefit, e.g. pain is an early warning system that helps us avoid many kinds of death. Why would nihilism be the natural conclusion here?