tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6642011.post1743063167783313807..comments2023-10-29T10:32:36.914-04:00Comments on Philosophy, et cetera: Inducing Desire SatisfactionsRichard Y Chappellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16725218276285291235noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6642011.post-28746483870128449522012-12-10T14:29:48.798-05:002012-12-10T14:29:48.798-05:00This is one of the crisper statements I've see...This is one of the crisper statements I've seen of a very important point - I wish I'd had it back when I was trying to talk someone out of desirism.EYhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00513892514872819332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6642011.post-48051496206755799942012-12-10T14:28:30.332-05:002012-12-10T14:28:30.332-05:00I know we've argued a lot over the years, so l...I know we've argued a lot over the years, so let me just state that this is one of the crispest statements I've seen of an important point, and say thanks.EYhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00513892514872819332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6642011.post-63672521703290934922008-07-16T14:24:00.000-04:002008-07-16T14:24:00.000-04:00Yeah, within constraints. (Conditional on your son...Yeah, within constraints. (Conditional on your son or future self wanting to be a serial killer, you presumably no longer want him to get what he wants.) And do you really know any parents who would accept a mad scientist's offer to turn their child into a super-satisfied grass-blade-counter?<BR/><BR/>There is some sense in which we want people (others, as well as ourselves) to get what they want. But it is definitely <I>not</I> in the sense of wanting to maximize the number of desire-satisfactions that occur. (Nor even 'happiness', in any narrow sense: who would plug their kid into an experience machine?) We do not look kindly on the prospect of artificially induced desires. Rather, what we want is for the people we care about to do well as assessed against their <I>current</I> goals (suitably idealized, perhaps), and we trust that their future desires will typically be a coherent continuation of these. <BR/><BR/>Artificially induced desires undermine this assumption; they won't necessarily "make sense" or fit into the broader web of the person's interests and concerns, which may explain why we don't value them in the same way.Richard Y Chappellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16725218276285291235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6642011.post-73007728630075677272008-07-16T13:07:00.000-04:002008-07-16T13:07:00.000-04:00For our children we say we want them to be happy, ...For our children we say we want them to be happy, to get whatever it is that they want. For myself at retirement, I don't know what it is that I will want, but I want myself to get it. So there are senses in which we most of all want people to get whatever they want, and are less picky about what that thing is.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6642011.post-17929079259855200512008-07-15T00:07:00.000-04:002008-07-15T00:07:00.000-04:00Certainly, if you manipulate me to be satisfied wi...Certainly, if you manipulate me to be satisfied with different preferences, then (by definition) that is a scenario in which my counterfactual self would be satisfied. But it doesn't follow that, from my current perspective, I should see anything desirable about that scenario. So if the DS theorist wants to insist that it would "really" be better for me, that is the same sort of 'paternalistic' view of welfare -- i.e. overriding my own best judgment of what's good for me -- that desire theorists reject in objectivism.Richard Y Chappellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16725218276285291235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6642011.post-16379436282002524702008-07-14T23:17:00.000-04:002008-07-14T23:17:00.000-04:00(I'd rather struggle to achieve some of my philoso...(I'd rather struggle to achieve some of my philosophical and personal goals than be a satisfied grass-blade counter.)<BR/><BR/>But you say this now – if your goals were different, wouldn't you be satisfied to have achieved _them_?yurivishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07004519825692544848noreply@blogger.com