Monday 20 June 2011

A Test for Desirism

Alf and Betty return home after a hard day's work gathering and scattering stones. Alf grabs a beer from the fridge and starts to unwind. Sitting in his arm chair he suddenly realizes that the house is too hot for comfort. He goes to the thermostat on the wall and sees that it is set at 22.5ºC. Just then, Betty comes up to the thermostat as well and declares that the house is too cool for comfort.

Now, Alf is the warm blooded sort and he 'desires' the house to be at 20ºC.

But, Betty is the cold blooded sort and she 'desires' the house to be at 25ºC.

If they leave the thermostat at 22.5ºC then both have their desires thwarted.

If they set it to either 20ºC or 25ºC then one of them is going to have their desire satisfied while the other's desire is thwarted.


How does Desirism solve their dilemma?