Desire

Desire
Aristide Maillol · Public domain · source
Name	Desire
Field	Psychology, Neuroscience, Philosophy
Related	Motivation, Emotion, Reward

Desire Desire is a motivational state prompting agents toward perceived goals and outcomes, implicated in choice, action, and valuation. It occupies central roles in Aristotle's ethics, Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis, William James's psychology, and contemporary work by Daniel Kahneman and Antonio Damasio. Scholars link desire to decision-making in contexts including Adam Smith's political economy, John Rawls's moral theory, and debates in Immanuel Kant's practical philosophy.

Definition and conceptual overview

Definitions by Plato, Thomas Aquinas, David Hume, G. E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein treat desire as a conative state distinct from belief and perception. Analytic treatments by Gilbert Ryle, Peter Strawson, P. F. Strawson and Donald Davidson situate desire within action-theory alongside intention and belief. Contemporary philosophers such as John Searle, Harry Frankfurt, Bernard Williams and Christine Korsgaard debate whether desires are motivational pro-attitudes, evaluative judgments, or reducible to neural processes described by Patricia Churchland and Jaak Panksepp.

Psychological theories and models

Psychological models include the drive reduction theory of Clark Hull, incentive theories developed by B. F. Skinner and Edward C. Tolman, and expectancy-value formulations by Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen. Dual-process frameworks by Daniel Kahneman and Jonathan Haidt contrast affective desires with reflective preferences examined by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. Attachment-related desire is explored in work by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, while developmental trajectories are modeled by Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky.

Neuroscience and biological bases

Neural substrates identified in studies by Warren McCulloch, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Eric Kandel and Joseph LeDoux implicate circuits in the ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala. Neurochemical mechanisms involve dopamine pathways characterized by research from Wolfram Schultz and Ann Graybiel, as well as opioid-related systems studied by Nora Volkow and George Koob. Comparative work on incentive salience by Kent Berridge links mammalian circuitry to findings from Konrad Lorenz and Nikolaas Tinbergen in ethology.

Types and classifications

Classifications derive from historic taxonomies such as the appetites in Hippocrates and the passions in Blaise Pascal, to modern lists used in research on sexual desire by Masters and Johnson and on moral desire by Alasdair MacIntyre. Distinctions include primary vs. secondary desires discussed by Harry Frankfurt, intrinsic vs. extrinsic motives in Edward Deci and Richard Ryan's self-determination theory, and conscious vs. unconscious desires in Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Economic models by Gary Becker and Amartya Sen categorize preferences influencing market behavior studied in John Nash's game theory.

Development and influences

Developmental influences are examined across life-span studies by Erik Erikson, Urie Bronfenbrenner, and longitudinal cohorts like the Dunedin Study. Cultural modulation appears in cross-cultural research by Geert Hofstede, Clifford Geertz, and Margaret Mead, while social learning accounts draw on Albert Bandura and observational studies in settings such as Stanford Prison Experiment and Milgram experiment contexts. Historical shifts in desire expression are traced through epochs like the Renaissance, Enlightenment, Victorian era, and contemporary globalization affected by Marshall McLuhan and Thomas Friedman.

Social, cultural, and ethical aspects

Social theories from Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Pierre Bourdieu analyze communal regulation of desire through institutions like the Catholic Church and movements such as the Sexual Revolution. Ethical debates engage thinkers including Aristotle on virtue, Immanuel Kant on duty, John Stuart Mill on utilitarian calculus, and contemporary ethicists like Martha Nussbaum and Michael Sandel on autonomy. Political implications surface in policy debates involving Magna Carta, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and contemporary legislation shaped by cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Clinical relevance and disorders

Clinical literature links dysfunctional desire to conditions studied in psychiatry by Emil Kraepelin, Alois Alzheimer, and contemporary classifications in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and ICD-11. Disorders include hyposexuality and hypersexuality researched by Helen Singer Kaplan, addictive behaviors addressed by Nora Volkow and Gabor Maté, obsessive-compulsive phenomena treated following work by Aaron Beck and David Clark, and motivational deficits in major depressive disorder and schizophrenia examined in neuropsychiatric clinics affiliated with institutions like Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and National Institutes of Health.

Category:Psychology Category:Neuroscience Category:Philosophy