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    Categorical desires give a person reason to live. — Carmelics
    Home/Afterlife & Death
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Categorical desires give a person reason to live.

    Afterlife & Death
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.A father's desire that his beloved daughter have a good start in life is not conditional on his remaining alive—it is categorical.
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    • 2.Because the father can see to his daughter's well-being if he survives, this categorical desire gives him reason to live.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Schopenhauer and Buddhist traditions hold that categorical desires reflect attachment, which generates suffering rather than reasons for continued existence.
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    • 2.A desire that produces suffering upon frustration provides reason to extinguish the desire itself rather than to preserve the life that hosts it.
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    • 3.Therefore, categorical desires provide reasons to practice detachment, not reasons to live.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Categorical desires can be fulfilled posthumously through prior arrangements, making survival instrumentally unnecessary for their satisfaction.
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    • 2.If a desire's object can be secured without the desirer's continued existence, that desire does not constitute a reason to remain alive.
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    Afterlife & Death

    Related

    A desire that produces suffering upon frustration provides reason to extinguish ...A father's desire that his beloved daughter have a good start in life is not con...Because the father can see to his daughter's well-being if he survives, this cat...Categorical desires can be fulfilled posthumously through prior arrangements, ma...
    +3 moreShow less
    If a desire's object can be secured without the desirer's continued existence, t...Schopenhauer and Buddhist traditions hold that categorical desires reflect attac...Therefore, categorical desires provide reasons to practice detachment, not reaso...

    Similar

    Categorical desires are important elements of our characters.77%If we thanatize our desires, dying would not interfere with any of our...76%For an endless life to be desirable, it must clearly be me who lives f...75%There is reason to think that a person's survival of death is logicall...75%

    Source

    AI-extracted2/3 agreementValid
    SEP: death
    Williams
    View source passageHide passage
    Consider a woman who wants to die. She might still take the view that if she is to live on, then she should be well fed and clothed. She wants food and clothing on condition she remain alive. In this sense her desires (for food and clothes) are conditional on her remaining alive, and, in being conditional on her living on, they do not give her reason to live. Contrast a father who desires that his beloved daughter have a good start in life. His desire is not conditional on his remaining alive. In this sense, it is, Williams says, categorical. In fact, his desire gives him reason to live, becau...
    Extraction notes

    Validity: The premises faithfully reflect the passage's example of the father's categorical desire and its role in providing reason to live, which directly supports the general conclusion that categorical desires give a person reason to live.

    Confidence: Clearly stated argument with an illustrative example.

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit