Backgrounding Desire

Pettit, Philip; Smith, Michael

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Backgrounding Desire

Date

2024-01-01

Authors

Pettit, Philip

Smith, Michael

Abstract

Granted that desire is always present in the genesis of human action, is it something on the presence of which the agent always reflects? I may act on a belief without coming to recognize that I have the belief. Can I act on a desire without recognizing that I have the desire? In particular, can the desire have a motivational presence in my decision00ADmaking, figuring in the background, as it were, without appearing in the content of my deliberation, in the foreground?.