Definition: "Good Desires"

I have been asked to provide a definition of "good desires".

The short answer is that a good desire is a desire that tends to fulfill other desires.

To fulfill a desire means that, for a desire that P, to create a state of affairs in which P is true. Thus, to fulfill a desire that one's children are healthy one must create a state of affairs in which the proposition "my children are healthy" is true.

However, this is a simplified definition. What it leaves out is the fact that the desires it is being evaluated against themselves have to be evaluated according to their capacity to fulfill other desires - including the desire being evaluated.

This will tend to bring charges of "circularity".

However, this is a type of circularity that philosophers consider virtuous. It can be found elsewhere.

For example, in the interpretation of language, the meaning of a word is determined by its relationship to other words. The meaning of those other words is determined by their relationship to still other words including the word that is being defined.

In epistemology, coherentist theories of epistemology argue that a belief is justified according to its coherence with other beliefs. Those beliefs are further justified by their coherence with still other beliefs, including its coherence with the original belief being justified.

Consequently, there is nothing particularly problematic with the claim that a good desire is a desire that tends to fulfill other desires, where those other desires are evaluated according to their capacity to fulfill still other desires including the desire being evaluated. These types of virtuous circles create no overwhelming difficulty for interpreting language or justifying belief, and it should create no special problems for morality.