ABSTRACT
The concept of desire that is most consistent with ordinary ways of talking about desires and their conflicts with duties is isolated by distinguishing several senses of “wanting” found in paradigm situations where a person denies that he wanted to do what he intentionally did. The results undercut the plausibility of the view that cognitive states are incapable by themselves of motivating a person to act (conativism) and suggest that some form of cognitivism (the denial of conativism) may be more helpful in capturing the distinctions embedded in ordinary ways of talking about wants and desires.
