I offer a novel conception of the nature of wanting. According to it, wanting is lacking something one needs. Lacking is not a normative notion but needing is, and that is how goodness figures in to wanting. What a thing needs derives from what it is to be a good thing of its kind. In people, wanting is connected to both knowledge and the will. A person can know that she wants something and can act on that knowledge. When she does, she is acting in light of that want and her want is a reason why she acted. There is a close connection between wanting and our wills, not just because we can sometimes choose how to get what we need, but because our choices can determine what we want. We can't simply choose to want something, but in deciding how to live our lives, who to be, and what to pursue, we are free to settle what we want, at least within limits. These connections to knowledge and the will make human wanting rich and morally relevant, but they don't transform human wanting into something special. Wanting is everywhere just a matter of lacking something one needs.

中文翻译：

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缺乏、需要和想要

我提出了一个关于匮乏本质的新颖概念。根据它，想要是缺乏一个人需要的东西。缺乏不是一个规范的概念，但需要是，这就是善良与缺乏的关系。一件事物需要什么，取决于它是什么，才能成为同类中的好事物。在人们中，想要与知识和意志相关。一个人可以知道她想要什么，并可以根据该知识采取行动。当她这样做时，她是在根据那种需求行事，而她的需求是她采取行动的原因。想要和我们的意志之间有着密切的联系，不仅因为我们有时可以选择如何获得我们需要的东西，而且因为我们的选择可以决定我们想要什么。我们不能简单地选择想要什么，而是在决定如何过我们的生活、成为什么样的人、追求什么时，我们可以自由地确定我们想要什么，至少在限制范围内。这些与知识和意志的联系使人类的欲望变得丰富且与道德相关，但它们并没有将人类的欲望转化为特殊的东西。想要无处不在，只是缺乏一个人需要的东西。