Sensory desires or tendencies toward appealing objects are part of the life experience. The typical expression of this existential dynamic is familiar to us: “wanting” to eat, drink, rest, dance, watch a movie, read, jog… We can also go through periods without any desire to do anything: we don’t feel like doing anything, and there are no objects or activities that attract us. This lack of motivation is a sign that something is wrong in our lives. In one of its variations, it is a disorientation due to a lack of meaning in life, whether in small things or in larger, more profound matters.

The truth is, we live in a civilization of desire, designed to offer us things, experiences of immediate gratification. Industrial and technological society seeks to attract our attention to the products and services it offers for consumption in such a way that the well-known distinction between necessary, useful, and luxury goods loses relevance. What is a necessary good that satisfies an urgent need? What is a superfluous good that simply awakens our compulsive desires? As you can see, it’s very easy to confuse hunger with the desire to eat. Thus, a perverse alliance often forms between heightened sensitivity—fostered by advertising claims—and the wonders of objects displayed in physical or online stores. Modern marketing—aided by a basic understanding of the human conscious and unconscious—does its work and finds the appropriate means to offer our desires the goods that carry the pleasures we crave.

The reality of desires has been explored by the great philosophers. Plato sought to elevate  eros  toward the pursuit of goodness and beauty beyond the fleeting moment of pleasure. The Epicureans attempted to moderate desires, while the Stoics, rather, tried to extinguish them. Nietzsche dedicated himself to fighting against restrictions, norms, and institutions. What mattered, he argued, was the will to power: hunting lions transformed into children without worries or any moral compass. Marcuse, linked to the 1968 revolt, advocated for a civilization of pleasure, not a repressive one, that would allow for the explosion of technology and make life a game. These visions—and many more—attempt to account for desires experienced personally and collectively: they are raw and visceral; what do we do with them?

Manuel Cruz Ortiz de Landázuri presents a philosophical proposal for understanding the dynamics of human desires. In  *The Civilization of Desire: A Philosophical History of the Desired*  (Siglo Veintiuno, 2025), he offers a thoughtful perspective for navigating the highway of desires. He states: “Desire should not be combated, but integrated. Therefore, instead of proposing a strategy of control, we should first try to understand it, to grasp its logic in order to integrate it into the broader logic of human life. The problem is that desire has been understood as a mere impulse, when in reality it is an experience that possesses a certain logic and tendency. Desire arises from something, and it aims at something (pp. 206-207).” In other words, desire, human affectivity, is not an accessory and unrestrained element of humanity; rather, it is one of its constituent dimensions.

The goal is not insensitivity. The objective is to integrate the multitude of human desires and longings into habits that foster human flourishing, without succumbing to the compulsive and superficial gratification offered by consumer society.