Well, their ontological, epistemological, and ethical statuses, for three. Specifically, how it’s possible to want X and simultaneously want to not want X (while remaining more or less sane/rational). Whether metawants have any special status when making utilitarian ethical calculations. That sort of thing. Even the history of thought on the subject (e.g. Buddhism, where the stated (and only?) metawant is to eliminate all first-order wants).
I’ll see what I can do. There was a fair bit about second-order desire in my self-knowledge class and if people would be interested in a distillation/summary of it, I’ll provide.
What about metawants (a.k.a. second-order desire) do you want to see a post on?
Well, their ontological, epistemological, and ethical statuses, for three. Specifically, how it’s possible to want X and simultaneously want to not want X (while remaining more or less sane/rational). Whether metawants have any special status when making utilitarian ethical calculations. That sort of thing. Even the history of thought on the subject (e.g. Buddhism, where the stated (and only?) metawant is to eliminate all first-order wants).
I’ll see what I can do. There was a fair bit about second-order desire in my self-knowledge class and if people would be interested in a distillation/summary of it, I’ll provide.