notes on desirism

Stuff I scribbled down after listening to the first Season of a now-defunct series on applied ethics, all an attempt to make sense of it all:

• morality:
  • a subset of a theory of values
  • it deals with:
    • obligation
    • prohibition
    • permission
• value: concerned with reasons for action
• desires:
  • the only reasons for action that exist
  • all value is ultimately based on desires
• all intentional actions are grounded on believes and desires
• believes are motivationally inert
• what good people do:
  • promote desires that tend to fulfill other desires
  • inhibit desires that tend to thwart other desires
• what tools to use:
  • use praise to promote good desires
  • use condemnation to inhibit bad desires
• there are two forms of desires:
  • desires-as-means
  • desires-as-ends (the type that actually matters)
• shortcuts:
  • the only desires relevant to the discussion are malleable desires
  • the only actions relevant to the discussion are intentional actions