1/ “Desire is responsible for its own evolution…Desire is always using for its own ends the knowledge it has acquired of itself … [and] it is always becoming better equipped to reject everything that surrenders to its embrace” - #Girard
The problem with ‘desire’ a [🧵]
2/ When you desire a thing, you want the thing, the object. In order words, there is something intrinsic in that object that you want.
3/ There are three conditions that this ‘ordinary’ desire satisfies
a) a tangible-material lacking,
b) an attraction towards an object to quelch the lacking, and
c) a satisfying state. In order words, you want the object for what it is.
4/ However, the most problematic forms of our desires are not as such – they are what is called ontological or metaphysical desire.
5/ Metaphysical desire flouts all the three conditions for ‘ordinary’ desire. There is seldom any kind of real lacking, as such an attraction to an object will not quelch what was not lacking. Therefore, it makes sense that no satisfying state is reached.
6/ Metaphysical desire can be likened to a tumor: it is unnecessary like a tumor is, only in the sense that it is metaphysical. The desire is benign when you are not breaking yourself, when you are not run over by desire.
7/ But it could be malignant if the subject isn’t careful. This is when we talk about greed, virulent envy to the point where harm is done to the other, deep-seated hatred, and the like.
8/ These are the worst of human nature, and they can be traced directly to mimetic and metaphysical desires. Wanting to be like or surpass another – where a model (the person a subject imitates) becomes the obstacle.
9/ And so that I will be clear, the question isn’t whether we are immune to metaphysical desire or not; nobody is immune, in my assessment. On the contrary, the question is, where is your desire channeled?
10/ An attraction towards a friend’s possession might spur you to do a better job at moving civilization forward, but hopefully, it wouldn’t turn you into a negative neurotic vegetable, or say, a psycho who will do *anything for prestige.
11/ Fun fact, prestige – what metaphysical desire sorts – has its root directly from the Latin word praestigiae, which means an illusion or a mirage.
12/ Read more about these ideas, in my essay: bifarinthefifth.substack.com/p/prestige-as-an-illusion
Bif
@BifarinTheFifth
essayist @ youtube.com/@epistemeEngine AI blog @ theepsilon.substack.com μgrants @ mbbgrant.substack.com postdoc @georgiatech