Desire is non-reflective and cannot posit its own suppression as end

Evidence

Whatever I may happen to desire, I shall feel pleasure in obtaining it; but as a rule the pleasure is due to the desire, not the desire to the pleasure. — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2231 (#expands, via linked claim)

Desire therefore does not come to consciousness as heat comes to the piece of iron which I hold near the flame. Consciousness chooses itself as desire. For this, of course, there must be a motive; I do not desire just anything at any time. But as we showed in Part One of this book, the motive is raised in terms of the past, and consciousness by turning back upon it, confers on the motive its weight and its value. There is therefore no difference between the choice of the motive of the desire and the meaning of the upsurge—in the three ekstatic dimensions of duration—of a consciousness which makes itself desiring. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 979 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Nevertheless desire is itself doomed to failure. As we have seen, coitus, which ordinarily terminates desire, is not its essential goal. To be sure, several elements of our sexual structure are the necessary expression of the nature of desire, in particular the erection of the penis and the clitoris. This is nothing else in fact but the affirmation of the flesh by the flesh. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that it should not be accomplished voluntarily; that is, that we can not use it as an instrument but that we are dealing with a biological and autonomous phenomenon whose autonomous and involuntary expression accompanies and signifies the submerging of consciousness in the body. It must be clearly understood that no fine, prehensile organ provided with striated muscles can be a sex organ, a sex. If sex were to appear as an organ, it could be only one manifestation of the vegetative life. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 987 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Desire must be its own lack, not a merely physiological state — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 355; Desire is consciousness troubled by its own inapprehensible facticity; Desire is a chosen mode of consciousness, not a passive impingement — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 979 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Pleasure follows from desire rather than desire being caused by pleasure #expands (0.82) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2231
• Desire is a chosen mode of consciousness, not a passive impingement #qualifies (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 979
• Desire is doomed to failure because coitus and pleasure are not its essential goal #expands (0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 987