# Desire, Will and Choice -- Fight!



## jendragon (Aug 28, 2012)

Because I can...

I am throwing a philosophical question into the aether and would love to see what comes out. 

I have been pondering the question "What do you want?"

It seems to me that that is an ambiguous question, because there are many things that I desire that I do not choose to do/experience/be. Is the above asker inquiring into my desires, or the thing I wish to be enacted? That, in and of itself, however, is not the question.

The question is this: do you think there exists an in-between state of _will_--partially desire, yet sometimes in conflict with desire, and partially choice, but not always put into practice. 

Thoughts?


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## Paradox of Vigor (Jul 7, 2010)

What the hell are you talking about?


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## jendragon (Aug 28, 2012)

Investigating the meaning of free will. If the above choices are indistinguishable in your experience, or a distinction without a difference, then that's input, too. I just want to find out how people think, and, well, thinking about thinking is an NT specialty. I figured I'd start here.


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## akaskar (Nov 13, 2012)

Would you please write so that everyone can read 1 time and get what you are writing about? 

1) You want the answers here
2) We want questions that don't really require us to think much
3) If not 2 - we are either feeling stupid (like I do now :tongue, or you aren't writing clearly
4) In the end we don't answer your questions, so your #1 point is not fulfilled

BTW, if you are asking what would I choose among 3, I'd choose will for sure.


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## Octavarium (Nov 27, 2012)

There are desires that we do not want to be enacted, because that would get in the way of other desires. So you might desire to do something that would involve breaking the law, but choose not to because that would get in the way of your desire for freedom, or your desire to have a job. You might choose not to spend money on something that you want because it would get in the way of you having a warm and comfortable place to live. Even if you sacrifice something you want for the sake of some kind of moral obligation, you are still acting on desire - the desire to make someone else happy, the desire to have a clear conscience, ETC. So all the choices we make are ultimately about which desires we want to fulfil. Does that answer your question?


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## DeductiveReasoner (Feb 25, 2011)

I want 9 bong hits, a shot of bourbon and a slice of cherry pie.

Then I will understand the meaning of life.

And someone to argue with.


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## mental blockstack (Dec 15, 2011)

Desire, Will and Choice look to me like they might run parallel in some ways to Freud's ideas of Id, Ego and Superego.

Yeah, I've recognized the internal conflict, and 'Choice' is probably the one I've instinctively gone with, especially during times when one of those 3 had to be picked. I wanted the freedom of choice over automatic desire or will- the free ability to pick one of those over the other, depending on the particular scenario.

What do you think, OP? Is it your habitual, immediate "desire" to ponder about this? Do you seek to learn how to better "choose" to utilize "will" in order to fulfill a different "desire"?


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## mental blockstack (Dec 15, 2011)

This religious/taboo source shows one perspective Free-Will vs. Free-Choice - Fruit of the Word


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## Octavarium (Nov 27, 2012)

GYX_Kid said:


> Desire, Will and Choice look to me like they might run parallel in some ways to Freud's ideas of Id, Ego and Superego.


Oo, I like. That's sort of what I was getting at, actually. We associate the id with desire, but it's specifically primal desire and immediate gratification. Even if we do something that is a superego-based choice, however, we are still operating on desire. The desire to stick to our superego-based morals is just as much of a desire as our id-based primal desires.


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## mental blockstack (Dec 15, 2011)

Octavarium said:


> Oo, I like. That's sort of what I was getting at, actually. We associate the id with desire, but it's specifically primal desire and immediate gratification. Even if we do something that is a superego-based choice, however, we are still operating on desire. The desire to stick to our superego-based morals is just as much of a desire as our id-based primal desires.


Yup, I guess you could say that the choice to make an aloof decision about controlling your id and ego, can be a differently-defined desire. (I might be confusing ego with super-ego, I can't remember.)

So we've established that under this perspective, "will" and "choice" can be subtypes of "desire"?
Could one go further and claim "choice" and desire" to be subtypes of "will"?
etc.

Humans define things in compartments so binarily.
INTPs and Si. Definitions. Pshht.


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