Q&A: How do you distinguish between values and desires?
How do you distinguish between values and desires?
Question
On topics like loyalty to family, self-fulfillment, etc.
Answer
Carefully.
Discussion on Answer
You were understood, and I answered. Do you have a criterion for when something is something you see and when it is something you imagine? Do you have a criterion for when you love and when you merely like? It’s self-evident and doesn’t require criteria. There may be cases in the gray area, but that does not cast doubt on the distinction itself.
The Rabbi wrote that there may be cases in the gray area, but that does not cast doubt on the distinction itself. For those cases where it does cast doubt, does the Rabbi know of a distinction?
P.S. A person chooses and holds his values by his own free will (otherwise they are not his values), so a value is just a dressed-up desire. And since the Rabbi doesn’t agree with that, I’d be glad to read why.
The Rabbi still hasn’t answered me yet. (:
Apparently I wasn’t understood. Everyone understands that preserving another person’s life is a value, whereas eating pizza is a desire / craving. Does the Rabbi have a clear definition of when something is defined as a value and when as a desire?