 Hello and welcome to yet another philosophical improvisation. Today we will speak about desire. In Latin, desideratum meant that we were out of a star. We were longing for a star. We were separated from it. Desire was implicitly defined as a state of lack and indeed this is how most people experience one dimension of it. Because of course desire has two dimensions. It has the dimension of longing for something or an experience or a presence that is not a part of us. But at the same time it is a part of us as presence. It is a positive experience. It is this state of near-fulfillness, near-completion. Desire has been an important matter for most spiritual practices. Desire has something that we ought to control if not get rid of. In Plato we ascend to eternal truths by a purification of desire. In Buddhism and many religions etc. Desire is seen as the enemy of transcendence and spirituality. And it has been considered by many philosophers as a sort of antinomic double. Now let's look at evolution of the human species. We might have experienced many periods that seem all very different, but in a way something connects us to the first humans. Something runs across the metamorphoses of civilizations and cultures. It is our relationship to desire and how we negotiate with it. The experience of desire itself in its many aspects, not only sexual but also spiritual, cosmological. That relationship is how in a way a civilization is defined. And coming back to the individual. I think we haven't solved today yet the question of the integration of desire, this old platonic question of separation. Many people still have double lives. Many people still have a dual economy of desire and norm. They see normality and desire as dialectical. So we need to have a social discussion, open discussion about desire. That's it for today. This was yet another philosophical improvisation. And see you tomorrow.