Barring the socializing influences of culture, I expect typical humans to intermittently experience urges to eat, to socialize, to have sex with each other, and to kill each other.
I also expect that every successful human culture has established cultural norms that govern those urges so that they don’t become too dangerous to the group. Consequently we mostly don’t go around eating whatever we want, having sex with whoever we want, or killing whoever we want… instead, we follow social rules that govern what and when and how it’s OK to do those things.
In some cases we internalize such rules and adopt them as values of our own (“I respect the property rights of others and will therefore not eat food that isn’t mine”, “I respect the bodily autonomy of others and will therefore not have sex with them unless the desire is mutual,” “I respect the social rules that govern acceptable sex partners and will therefore not have sex with socially unacceptable partners whether or not the desire is mutual”, “I respect the lives of others and will therefore not kill them even when they deserve it,” etc.). In other cases we don’t internalize them, but we follow them because it’s more practical to do so.
That doesn’t mean the impulse isn’t there.
That having been said… I would agree that the sense of urgency that arises from, for example, not eating for a day is very different from the sense of urgency that arises from, for example, not murdering someone who violates me.
But I would also say that the sense of urgency that arises from not having sex with someone really attractive is not very much like either of those, and more like the latter than the former.
Barring the socializing influences of culture, I expect typical humans to intermittently experience urges to eat, to socialize, to have sex with each other, and to kill each other.
I also expect that every successful human culture has established cultural norms that govern those urges so that they don’t become too dangerous to the group. Consequently we mostly don’t go around eating whatever we want, having sex with whoever we want, or killing whoever we want… instead, we follow social rules that govern what and when and how it’s OK to do those things.
In some cases we internalize such rules and adopt them as values of our own (“I respect the property rights of others and will therefore not eat food that isn’t mine”, “I respect the bodily autonomy of others and will therefore not have sex with them unless the desire is mutual,” “I respect the social rules that govern acceptable sex partners and will therefore not have sex with socially unacceptable partners whether or not the desire is mutual”, “I respect the lives of others and will therefore not kill them even when they deserve it,” etc.). In other cases we don’t internalize them, but we follow them because it’s more practical to do so.
That doesn’t mean the impulse isn’t there.
That having been said… I would agree that the sense of urgency that arises from, for example, not eating for a day is very different from the sense of urgency that arises from, for example, not murdering someone who violates me.
But I would also say that the sense of urgency that arises from not having sex with someone really attractive is not very much like either of those, and more like the latter than the former.