Longings in Limbo: A New Defence of I-Desires

This paper responds to two arguments that have been offered against the positing of ‘i-desires’, imaginative counterparts desire supposedly involved in fiction, pretence, and mindreading. The Introspection Argument asks why, if there are both i-desires desires, distinction is so unfamiliar hard draw, unlike relatively clear distinctions between perception mental imagery, or belief belief-like imagining. Accountability how it can make sense treat merely states as revealing someone’s psychology, way we do with responses fiction. I argue carefully considering relationship other their sheds light on should expect differ from suggests may often be indeterminate, limbo categories. indeterminacy explains why these about us even without (determinately) being real desires.