I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies.
– Aristotle
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Samizdata quote of the dayAugust 18th, 2004 |
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“The will to overcome a desire is ultimately only the will of another desire or of several others”
– Nietzsche
Ah, mad old ‘Fred Neechee’. Of course that is only true if reason is just another ‘desire’.
Surely desire in this case means specifically “appetite.”
Individualism means resisting your appetites and external pressures to conform (compulsion), so that you can do what you really think is right (reason).
I wish Melanie Philips et al would see it that way. Rampant individualism my arse!
Question for Mr De Havilland:
so you equate ‘free-will’ with reason? – surely not!
“Individualism means resisting your appetites and external pressures to conform (compulsion), so that you can do what you really think is right (reason).”
Really? And when we come to rest on what we think is the right thing to do, are we not then motivated to do it – out of the desire to do the right thing no less? The word ‘desire’ has somewhat base associations (food, sex etc) but our desires may also be for something more lofty, might they not? Freedom is thus freedom to do what one most strongly desires, assuming one is capable of strong desires.
Reason is the slave of the passions.
David Hume.