Desire, mental force and desirous experience

This paper introduces the distinction between mental content and mental force. It argues that desire involves a mental force that is itself tied to a distinctive kind of desirous experience, an experience of felt need. Conceiving of desire in this manner, it is argued, can not only be defended against a number of prima facie objections, but also offers the best explanation of the truism that desire plays a crucial role in the rationalization of action insofar as desiring p and believing X-ing to promote p does make it at least minimally rational to X.