Many of us have a desire for something in our life. According to Merriam Webster dictionary desire is defined as; to long for something, or to hope for (Mariam Webster). People would like to be able to say that their desires are not out of selfish nature. When you look at humans, they are constantly creating a rivalry to be able to compare and do better. It is stated in our reading that “otherness is a fundamental category of human thought” (Simone de Beauvoir,1). That statement popped right of the page and made me realize that there is never just good enough for one thing, there is always a desire to top it. There are several subcategories such as human versus animal desire.
The article by Cantin, “The Drive, the Untreatable Quest of Desire” it mentioned that much of human desire comes from the conscious side, which means that we as people can control them, but chose not to. These are the “evil” desires that get humans in trouble. Desires are dangerous because they “inhibit people and push them to act” (Cantin, 2) and seek out that which they might envy, not necessarily need. Another article takes the position that it is the human sinful desire that caused the “fall” in the Bible (Smith, 215). In the middle of this article it is said that in Genesis the man and the woman desired to be better than God and ate the fruit, even thought they did not know what that meant, but just wanting to be better and wanting to be something they were not that caused sin and made man and woman have evil desires (Smith 216).
Human and animal desire are different. Animal desire is fulfilling the real needs. Like the unconscious desire, but human desire is focused a lot on wants and selfishness. As it is stated in the article by Hegel and by Schroeder, “humans desire useless things” (Schroeder, 2.4). While animals desire to fulfill the needs and focus on other members. Very often humans focus on their own desires with out thinking about anyone else. Animal desire is focused on the acting on somatic needs (Schroeder, 2.1), such as being parched. In conclusion, everyone has desires, it is knowing how one can control their actions towards them and can recognize if they need to be met at all costs.
Source Bibliography/ Citations
Beauvoir, Simone de, et al. The Second Sex. Vintage Books, 2011.
Cantin, Lucie. “The Drive, the Untreatable Quest of Desire.” Differences (Bloomington, Ind.), vol. 28, no. 2, 09/01/2017, pp. 24-45,
“Desire.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/desire.
Kojève Alexandre, et al. Introduction to the Reading of Hegel. Cornell University Press, 2012.
Schroeder, Tim. “Desire.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 9 Apr. 2015, plato.stanford.edu/entries/desire/.
Smith, Mark S. “Before Human Sin and Evil: Desire and Fear in the Garden of God.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly, vol. 80, no. 2, Apr. 2018, pp. 215–230. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/cbq.2018.0048.
Nice job Kim! I really liked how you connected this reading to the Bible and our own desires, showing that throughout human history we have been defined by wanting more and more for ourselves, despite the risks involved. You mentioned that people would like to say their desires are not selfish, but we all want the best for ourselves. We all have selfish desires, but I think this is partially because our society puts pressure on us to focus on ourselves and not think about the effects on others. If our society put more emphasis on the success of the group, would our desires be so selfish?
I think that it is a great idea to try and put emphasis on a groups success! I believe that that some consequences may arise from focusing on groups that then people become even more “cliquey”. I think that society needs to look at it as a whole especially during these tough times and think about the group, while being able to do our own “research” so its not a big bandwagon.
I found your analysis in this post to be really interesting! I feel that the fact that we, as humans, have both animal and human desires shows how complex we are as individuals. I agree that the combination of these desires has led humanity to some dark and selfish moments, especially when we allow our human desires to go unchecked. I have one question that I feel expands on this topic: to what extent do our human desires, which are often selfish, play into charitable acts? Is it possible for us to overcome these desires by helping others, or are we doing it only for ourselves? Both desires are present in our decision making process, but perhaps it is possible for us to recognize when we can use our human desires for a greater purpose beyond ourselves.
I think to go off of your question our human desires can change and play into charitable acts when we are so focused about making someone look better than us by building the other person up and finding ways to help them and while you are helping someone become better, it becomes a charitable act because you would be giving away your own time and effort for someone else that you would desire to be successful.
This post opened my eyes to see the effects desire can place upon society today. I think it is interesting that you mentioned how desire pushes people to top certain standards put in place. I think this especially applies to the competitive structure of society. For example, as a student, you compete alongside others to get into a specific program or receive a certain scholarship. In some cases, desire can serve as motivation for students, but it can also lead to negative actions. Humans have the ability to control these want-based desires, so it is important to understand the impact an action performed out of desire may have on yourself, another person, or society as a whole before carrying out the action. Great job!
that is a very good point. Many times we get caught acting before thinking about consequences.
The connection you made between desire relating to selfishness without the consideration of others was very profound. Often times the “evil” that you mentioned stemming from desire comes about from a self centered person or even a self centered society. I also liked your point that desire is something that can be controlled, as many seem to ignore this fact as an excuse for actions they are not proud of. Desire can be used for good when it is put into use in the right scenario. Desire can push oneself towards accomplishing amazing things, but it can also lead to their downfall. This determination is made by the way you analyze a desire and which desires you choose to focus your attention on.
I agree with desire pushing oneself toward becoming better as a society. That is why being aware of others is important.
This was a great connection between the bible and our innate desire to always do better. This is something that I’ve struggled with in certain things, I always want to be the best but the truth is that it’s almost impossible to be the best at everything and in order to improve at something you need to focus and put time into your passion. This article was very thought provoking for me and was very enjoyable to read.
thank you, I find myself in though about this every day now.
Hi Kim. You did an amazing job. I like how you mentioned that animals have desires as well. To me this came across as animals have the tendency to have desires for survival. This is where the ideas of the “evil” human desires differed. Meaning, I thought about desires of lust and revenge. However, I also find it interesting that when thinking of desires that this basic needs and lack of control that is considered “evil” it is also considered animalistic.
I think to clear it up animal desire is not the evil one I was writing about. Animal desire is the one where I was mentioning it as the necessities.
Hello Kim, your post is very thought-provoking and has made me think more deeply about selfishness. The desires of humans can be considered useless, although something like money can be seen as a necessity to live a comfortable life in America, just as animals need enough food, shelter, and resources for a comfortable life in the wild. When looking at money or other human desires in this way, they don’t seem useless or selfish. However, humans have a large capacity to help people and create peace, but this does not happen. In this way, money, power, and other human desires are clearly selfish and useless.
I see where you are coming from, but honestly how much money do people need? I recently watched a documentary about living off of a dollar a day. It is very eye opening as well.
Hi, Kim! Nice work! Your post reminds me of what desire is and makes me think more about selfishness. Everyone has their desires and that depends on what they want. So people like money since they want to get more to have a better life. People in those poor areas may want food and clean water since they need them. I really like the way you compare animals’ desire to human desire. Animals’ desire for food and territories is to survive and they are doing that unconsciously. But humans are different, they have desires to satisfy their own selfishness and humans did that on purpose. But I think having desires is not always a bad thing to humans, humans who have desires will have motivations to achieve something.
Motivation and desire a slightly different, I see desire as to long or hope for something, but motivation is finding the drive
Nice job, Kim. I like what you’re saying, and you’re writing about human nature. People and animals are very different, we have morals, society and ideas. But at the same time, we also want more people’s desires and selfish places. But the animal’s desire is more for the sake of living. So people need to make more effort to control their desires, such as jealousy and other bad emotions. Some people are great because they can control their desires,and they can stick to their own heart, to do what they really want to do. We usually call this kind of man a saint. For most of us, we may not be able to become a saint, but I hope we will not be captivated by desire, and hope we can be faithful for our hearts.
I agree that if we were to make a better effort to be better about being conscious about our desires we as a population can be much farther in our unselfishness.
Kim- Similarly to holloway.263 previously said in the comments, I loved how you incorporated animal’s desires into your post and contrasted them to human desire in a very understandable way. Since a human brain is so much more complex, we are able to desire so many different ways whereas animal desires are more on a “need” basis like you mentioned. Do you think that some animals like dogs or cats desire on a comfort level as well as their basic survival desires? I feel like some animals definitely desire being pet or praised which is such a cool aspect of their personalities as well as their whole species.
to answer your question I think animals do also desire on a comfort level, for example favoriting a person over another when they are scared. As well as toys and their favorite sleeping spots.
You make some very compelling points in your article. Your description of how humans and animals are different because of our unique desires and your bringing up of humans desiring useless things are both very interesting and thought provoking. Instead of simply following our instincts like animals, we have the ability to think and attach meaning to different objects or ideas. Another good point was that no matter the circumstances, humans always have a drive to have more than what we currently have. You brought this point up by discussing Genesis from the Bible along with Adam and Eve which I thought was a very good comparison.
Hi Kim, you did a great job. The part where you said and quoted Cantin, “Desires are dangerous because they “inhibit people and push them to act.” I think shows how as humans we desire selfish things even if it has no benefit to our survival and in fact has a consequence we are willing to overlook. Such as something like the desire for revenge or the desire to be better than others while hurting them to get to the top. We tend to desire things only beneficial to our selfish ego, leading to why we desire “evil” things.
I thoroughly enjoyed this post, it’s philosophical message did an amazing job of conveying the meaning. Humans desire is indeed very selfish and knows no end, the contrast of an animals desire really drove this point home. Animal desires tend to be survival based, while human desire has lead to great atrocities, such as wars over ancient religions that are hardly followed anymore. Showing us that human desire can often spiral out of control in the pursuit of acquiring a great deal of wants.
Our wants can be very dangerous, which is why I mentioned to be careful about how they are acquired. Our wants are deep, and animal wants are survival based because their needs are not easily met.
Hi Kim!
I really enjoyed reading your post. Your example of human greed/sinfulness from the bible is something I am very familiar with, and I thought it related perfectly to your prompt. I have never thought to compare human desire to animal desire, but their difference is very interesting. Humans are much more selfish and desire things we want but can necessarily have. Whereas animals desire things they need to survive. Well done!
Thank you! I believe that we can learn a lot from a simple, but yet complex creature.
Great job Kim! This post adds a very interesting and true perspective. We as humans, all have wants and desires and it is very intriguing that even though a desire may be “evil, we fulfill the desire anyway. It is neat to compare how us humans fulfill our desires vs animals. It is clear that our desires are fueled by our minds and by our wants. While animals desires are fueled by their needs.
Great job on this presentation I really believe that this helped enhance my understanding of this weeks readings. I especially enjoyed your reference to the bible when you discussed eating the fruit. I felt that this is a great example of how us as humans sometimes desire things not because we truly need them, but just because we want to feel superior to something. I also found it very meaningful when you emphasized the difference between animal and human desires which is that human desires are often selfish wants meanwhile animal desires are based off essential needs. Understanding this distinction can help one realize what drives a person.
Great post! Very interesting how you pointed out the difference between human and animal needs. I totally agree humans are very greedy and want things that aren’t needed. Do you think humans want even more unnecessary things now that social media is such a big influence on all our lives?
Great Analysis! I like the highlighted differences between human and animal desires, and what we can control. We need to be especially careful of which of our human desires end up hurting other unintended people as we aim to help ourselves. Humans as a collective do not always need to chase being better.