Desire, Passion & Death: Philosophical Reflections

Desire, Passion and Death

Desire and Its Features

Desire and passion. Desire is a movement of our psychic activity: we reach toward an object impulsively. We consider desire a source of satisfaction. I want to highlight three features:

1. Failure: Desire is the wish for something one does not possess.
2. Excess: Desire often lives in the world of excess; it goes beyond mere need.
3. Conflict and unrest: Desire can be based on conflict and cause intranquility; at extremes it can include a wish to die when it reaches positions opposed to its objective.

Value and Positions on Desire

We can recognize different views about the value of desire:

1. Positive view: Recognize desire as a fundamental human aspect; this position maintains that desire is an essential reality.
2. Critical view: Argue for the need to dominate desire as if it were a negative element; this position maintains that it is necessary to fight desire to achieve happiness.

Passion: Nature and Positions

Passion is an inclination or tendency that can be mastered. When someone has a serious passion of domination it can lead to a state of suffering, which sometimes is not recognized consciously. There are two positions on this matter:

1. Reason should master passion: Reason must master passion because passion can become an impulse that dominates us.
2. Passion and knowledge: Without passion there is no real knowledge; when something is poorly understood, passion is necessary to know it deeply.

Passion is an inclination or tendency that can be mastered: when someone has a serious passion of domination it can lead to a state of suffering, which sometimes is not recognized consciously. There are two positions on this matter:

1. Reason should master passion: Reason must master passion because passion can become an impulse that dominates us.
2. Passion and knowledge: Without passion there is no real knowledge; when something is poorly understood, passion is necessary to know it deeply.

Death: Philosophical Reflections

Death: Philosophical reflection on death takes into account biological and cultural aspects, but it goes beyond them. These are some themes:

1. Finality: Death is always final and reminds us that human life is limited and not eternal.
2. Unpredictability: Death can seldom be predicted, except in extreme cases such as suicide or homicide; this unpredictability causes anguish.
3. Personal event: Death is a personal act; no one can die for us, and it takes place in deep solitude.
4. Fundamental questions: Death generates fundamental questions that can be summed up in two: Is death the end of life? Is there an afterlife?