The Anatomy of Desire
Essay Preview: The Anatomy of Desire
Report this essay
2 Kinds of Motion
Vital Motion-are innate & automatic to all animals and they continue throughout life. They include the flow of blood, breathing, digestion, excretion, etc.
Voluntary Motion-are active & directed and may be known as endeavours or passions. They include walking, speaking, & the moving of the limbs. These beginnings of motions (which progress into directed actions) before they actually appear in walking/speaking,etc. are called endeavours
Define the following terms: desire, love, aversion, hate
These endeavours when they are toward something which causes them is called an Appetite or DESIRE. And when the Endeavour is from ward something it is called an AVERSION. It is said that Ðthat which men desire they are said to LOVE and Ðthat which men have aversion for is what they HATE.
Egoistic Hedonism the ethical theory that achieving ones own happiness is the proper goal of all conduct
Absolutism versus relativism
Absolutism: the view that there is a universal standard of right & wrong. What is right & wrong does not depend on what individuals/societies believe.
Relativism: the view that there is no universal standard of right & wrong. What is right & wrong depends in some way on what individuals/societies believe.
Of desires Ð- some are natural and some arise from experience
Define the term power
Power: For Foucault, power is not a law-like force that controls & prohibits. Instead, power is productive and repressive. Power doesnt just come from those in authority, it manifests itself in many different ways. It directs the transmission of knowledge and it discourses and shapes our concepts and self-image.
Compare and contrast natural power and original power
Natural Power: ones mental and physical abilities
Instrumental Power: the power to acquire more power through objects or other people
Procrustean mistake
Procrustean: designed to produce strict conformity