Thanks for this overview. Another addition I find interesting: While we often want things because we expect to like them once we have obtained them, the mental states of wanting and liking seem mutually exclusive in a temporal sense. We can only want things we do not have, and we can only like things we do have. For example, I want to drink a glass of Coca-Cola. Once I obtained the drink, I enjoy drinking it, but then I do no longer want it, because the desire is already fulfilled. And before I actually obtained it, there was nothing I could already like about it, I had only the expectation (the belief) that I would like when I obtain it, in the future.
If that’s correct, this should also hold for the negative valence states of disliking and “unwanting” (wanting some outcome not to obtain). That is, we either unwant something or dislike it, but not both at the same time. For example, I strongly unwant to get wet because I expect to dislike it, and I only dislike it once I actually get wet. Yet puzzlingly, it seems that, while getting wet, I’m still able to want to not get wet. Despite my “undesire” (my anti-goal) being already, and unfortunately, “fulfilled”.
So does mutual exclusivity not hold just for negative valences? I think it still holds. In the example I really only “undesire” to get wet even more, and to stay wet, instead of getting dry again swiftly. Both are things which do not yet have occurred and which I unwant because I expect to dislike them. The current state of getting wet I only dislike, but do not unwant.
Thanks for this overview. Another addition I find interesting: While we often want things because we expect to like them once we have obtained them, the mental states of wanting and liking seem mutually exclusive in a temporal sense. We can only want things we do not have, and we can only like things we do have. For example, I want to drink a glass of Coca-Cola. Once I obtained the drink, I enjoy drinking it, but then I do no longer want it, because the desire is already fulfilled. And before I actually obtained it, there was nothing I could already like about it, I had only the expectation (the belief) that I would like when I obtain it, in the future.
If that’s correct, this should also hold for the negative valence states of disliking and “unwanting” (wanting some outcome not to obtain). That is, we either unwant something or dislike it, but not both at the same time. For example, I strongly unwant to get wet because I expect to dislike it, and I only dislike it once I actually get wet. Yet puzzlingly, it seems that, while getting wet, I’m still able to want to not get wet. Despite my “undesire” (my anti-goal) being already, and unfortunately, “fulfilled”.
So does mutual exclusivity not hold just for negative valences? I think it still holds. In the example I really only “undesire” to get wet even more, and to stay wet, instead of getting dry again swiftly. Both are things which do not yet have occurred and which I unwant because I expect to dislike them. The current state of getting wet I only dislike, but do not unwant.