Imposing Laws on the Appetites of Your Heart

“You know how to suffer and die.  You know how to endure the law of necessity in physical ills, but you have not yet imposed laws on the appetites of your heart, and the disorder of our lives arises from our affections far more than from our needs.” Rousseau, Emile, (trans. Bloom) 443-4.  We tend to emphasize need as something to be met, else all manner of bad result, but here he emphasizes appetites, which we may sometimes even elevate to the sacred.  We talk of how we deal with our appetites, including through practices in meditation and Stoicism.  LL particularly likes the reminder Marcus Aurelius gave himself mornings, to expect incompetence, imbecility, error and corruption.  It seems obvious, but one should regularly remind oneself that the mind defaults to a fantasy of the world, but wisdom is about accepting it as it is and being good and happy still.  

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I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.