Is desire the underlying motivational component of our life-force?

Question

Is desire the underlying motivational component of our life-force?

Answer 1

As far as motivation goes, yes.

Answer 2

No...Self preservation, propogation of the species, power, lust, greed and sloth...in that order.

Answer 3

Desire being such a general term, yes, but think about it! What slowhand said is partially true, but not at the same time. All those things are seemingly fueled by desire! "Self preservation, propogation of the species, power, lust, greed and sloth...in that order." Take each of these and turn, and see how each is fueled by "desire", in it's most encompassing definition.

Self preservation--the desire to live the human experience until it ends on its own. If you've ever been a life-or-death situation, you feel a horrible emotional pain right before the moment you think you're going to die, like you should've lived better, and at that moment you try to do anything to keep alive. So if there wasn't any desire, wouldn't people say, "Oh, well, I'm going to die. Who cares?" and then just takes their death.

Propogation of the species--such a concept is so dependent on sexual desire. If nobody felt sexual impulses for another, then propogation of the species would never happen!

Power--the desire to have others bide your will, humans view others biding their will as a most desirable thing. Also, having supporters is a desire too. That is why we try to make friends, because we like the feeling of having supporters, and when friends draw away from us we feel devastated. The desire for power is very strong in all humans, because whoever is the most powerful gets the most women, and whoever gets the most women gets the ability to pass on their genes 5x as much as the normal person.

Greed--well, greed IS simply desire, isn't it?

Sloth--sloth in many circumstances complies with power.

So you COULD say desire is the underlying motivational component, but it's such a general word, and is easily replaced with with many as-general philosophical concepts, such as we could say that everything we do is, actually, for the survival of the human race, the propogation of the species. If you get more specific with the term, for instance, say desire for knowledge, then desire loses its generalization, and the answer becomes, "no it's not the motivational component" so it really depends on what 'desire' you are talking about.