What is desire?

Abstract

The searching after meaning arises from a deep desire of mankind. The question “What is desire?” is answered by various artists and thinkers who significantly shaped and developed intellectual history. Desire has been considered and defined differently during the various ages, whether as an attempt to compensate for a personal deficit or as a feeling of being drawn towards the opposite gender. This article also looks at the eras of Enlightenment and Romanticism, covering not only the understanding of desire, but also the different forms of expression used to treat the question of desire: for Example in the painting entitled “Wanderer above the Sea of Fog” (translated into English) by Caspar David Friedrich and the symbol of “The Blue Flower” in the painting of Phillip Otto Runge, but also the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, we can see that the feeling of desire has continuously evolved. It arises from the soul of a primal desire which is the engine of all the creative activities.