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Question What is an interest? I mean it in the sense in which I have an interest in having an answer from you.

Accepted:
June 24, 2010

Comments

Great question! Someone else will be better at replying to this, but I will take a first shot to get the ball rolling. I do not think the term "interest" has a standard, clear usage, though I think it is probably most generally equated with a preference or perhaps a desire. So, your having an interest in a reply to your question would be the same as your having a desire or preference that someone give you an interesting answer. "Interesting" (I assume) means worthy of interest. In this sense, if someone is uninterested in X it does not follow that X is uninteresting.

A few more distinctions: Philosophers sometimes distinguish the interests that a person has and what is in a person's interest. In this sense, a person may be interested in drinking vast quantities of vodka, but it is not in that person's interest to do so.

We also sometimes think in terms of hypothetical or ideal interests. Someone may mistakenly think a glass of liquid is water and report "I am interested in drinking that" but let us say the glass is filled with poison and someone, knowing this, might well reply "You aren't really interested in THAT liquid! What you would really like is this other glass filled with purified water, enhanced with mineral for a pure, fresh taste!" Your chatty but well meaning friend would therefore assume that if you knew the facts your interest would be better expressed in reaching out for a different glass.

One further point is that some philosophers (e.g. Harry Frankfurt) have sought to capture the difference between preferences (and here we might refer instead to interests) that are substantial versus those that are (using Frankfurt's term) bull shit. An example of a BS interest is one that you have but you really don't care one way or the other.

Question What is an interest? I mean it in the sense in which I have an interest in having an answer from you. Accepted:June 24, 2010

Question What is an interest? I mean it in the sense in which I have an interest in having an answer from you.

Accepted:
June 24, 2010