Philosophy of desire

In philosophy, desire has been identified as a philosophical problem since Antiquity. In Plato's The Republic, Socrates argues that individual desires must be postponed in the name of the higher ideal.

Within the teachings of Buddhism, craving is thought to be the cause of all suffering. By eliminating craving, a person can attain ultimate happiness, or Nirvana. While on the path to liberation, a practitioner is advised to "generate desire" for skillful ends.

History

Ancient Greece

In Aristotle's De Anima the soul is seen to be involved in motion, because animals desire things and in their desire, they acquire locomotion. Aristotle argued that desire is implicated in animal interactions and the propensity of animals to motion. But Aristotle acknowledges that desire cannot account for all purposive movement towards a goal. He brackets the problem by positing that perhaps reason, in conjunction with desire and by way of the imagination, makes it possible for one to apprehend an object of desire, to see it as desirable. In this way reason and desire work together to determine what is a good object of desire. This resonates with desire in the chariots of Plato's Phaedrus, for in the Phaedrus the soul is guided by two horses, a dark horse of passion and a white horse of reason. Here passion and reason, as in Aristotle, are also together. Socrates does not suggest the dark horse be done away with, since its passions make possible a movement towards the objects of desire, but he qualifies desire and places it in a relation to reason so that the object of desire can be discerned correctly, so that we may have the right desire. Aristotle distinguishes desire into appetition and volition.

Désiré (baritone)

Désiré (29 December 1823 – September 1873) was a French baritone, who is particularly remembered for creating many comic roles in the works of the French operetta composer Jacques Offenbach. Désiré was a stage name; the artist's real name was Amable Courtecuisse, but for most of his life he was generally known as Désiré.

Life and career

He was born in Lille, or a nearby village, and studied bassoon, singing, and declamation at the Lille Conservatory. His first appearances were at small theatres in Belgium and northern France beginning in 1845.

In 1847, he arrived at the Théâtre Montmartre in Paris where he met Hervé. He asked Hervé to provide him with a musical sketch (drawn from Cervantes' novel Don Quixote), in which the tall and thin Hervé as the Don was pitted against the short and plump Désiré as Sancho Pança. The sketch inspired what was later dubbed the first French operetta, Hervé's Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança, which premiered in 1848 at Adolphe Adam's Théâtre National at the Cirque Olympique, but with Joseph Kelm, instead of Désiré, as Sancho Pança.

Desire (Tom Scott album)

Desire is an album by jazz musician Tom Scott.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Tom Scott; except where indicated

Personnel

Laid

Laid is the fifth studio album by British alternative rock band James. It was released on 5 October 1993. It was the first of several collaborations between the group and Brian Eno, who produced all but one of the album's tracks – in Stuart Maconie's authorised biography of the group, Folklore, they admitted that Eno didn't like the song "One of the Three" so they recorded it when he took a day off. The sessions also resulted in the experimental Wah Wah album.

Track listing

All songs written by Tim Booth, Larry Gott and Jim Glennie; except where noted.

remastered 2001 reissue adds:

Personnel

Laid (song)

"Laid" is the title song from Manchester alternative rock band James' 1993 album Laid. Emotionally evocative and featuring the risqué lyrics "This bed is on fire with passionate love, the neighbours complain about the noises above, but she only cums when she's on top", it quickly gained popularity on American college radio and remains the group's best-known song in the USA. Because of the lyrics, in America the music video of the song replaced the infamous line with "she only sings when she's on top" (although Tim Booth clearly lip-syncs the original line, and is accompanied by a subtitle reading "hums"). Today, a number of alternative rock stations, including Boston's RadioBDC, WBOS, Maryland's WRNR-FM, Chicago's WXRT and Philadelphia's WRFF will play "Laid" with the original controversial line.

While the song did chart on the Billboard Hot 100, its initial peak was #61. It made it on to the chart thanks to its cult status as a popular college song, which is what helped it to peak at #3 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song was much more successful in the band's native United Kingdom, where it peaked at number 25, becoming another Top 40 hit for the band before it was released in the United States.

Laid (disambiguation)

Laid may refer to:

Television

Music

Movies

Places