This introduces another very dangerous mistake, which is that of thinking that whenever a person has a concern, what she ‘really’ desires is some state of herself, such as her own peace of mind. Psychologists, especially, have been apt to think of desire in terms of a kind of build-up of tension, and what the agent is driven to do is to release the tension. It is then easy to think that the release of tension was the real object of desire all along. This too can introduce hurtful words: ‘You weren’t really concerned about the starving children, you were just wanting to feel good.’ And all
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