A puzzle about desire

Abstract

This paper develops a novel puzzle about desire consisting of three independently plausible but jointly inconsistent propositions: (1) all desires are dispositional states, (2) we have privileged access to some of our desires, and (3) we do not have privileged access to any dispositional state. Proponents of the view that all desires are dispositional states might think the most promising way out of this puzzle is to deny (3). I argue, however, that such attempts fail because the most plausible accounts of self-knowledge of desires do not explain how we possess privileged access to dispositional desires. I conclude by offering what I take to be a more promising solution to the puzzle, one that involves the rejection of (1) on the grounds that some desires possess phenomenology.