Wish

The wish is a desire for a thing or ability, an aspiration or at least a hope for a change in reality or perception, or the achievement of a goal for oneself or for another. Desires include both those of good fortune and those with negative connotations (curses, curses, wishing a plague on someone).

According to Zedler, desires can be divided into good and evil desires, reasonable and unreasonable desires, possible and impossible (futile) desires, and just and unjust desires, among others. Sigmund Freud also distinguishes between conscious and unconscious desires. The wish for peace is included in many greetings, examples are: "The Lord give thee peace," "Peace be with thee" (n. 6:26. Jud, etc.), also in other languages.

Desire as desire

A wish is often directed towards a change in one's own life circumstances, towards the satisfaction of needs, drives or desires, towards the acquisition of certain things, e.g. the wish for a (new) car, bicycle, computer, one's own apartment or house. At the top of the wish list for many people is the desire for health and peace, security, trust, respect, acceptance, recreation, strength, partnership, ease (effortlessness), freedom or abilities (possibilities, potential) and sexuality.

There are fulfillable and unfulfillable wishes. Some desires become unfulfillable when one misses the time for their fulfillment (both too early, when a desire is not even possible yet, such as a game that has not even been released, and too late, when, for example, a hoped-for relationship has already been taken). The desire for wish fulfillment is often a powerful force to achieve new things.

Trade

In trading, the wishes of the customer and the trader are opposed to each other. Both strive to fulfill their desires. The customer's desire is to receive goods that meet his wishes, the trader's desire is to make a profit, usually via a reasonable price - but the aim can also be to empty the shop in order to avoid subsequent costs. The trading process is not a zero-sum game here. Both sides can have an advantage. Since trading operations are repetitive, most traders try to have satisfied customers, that is, to satisfy their wishes. This includes determining what the customer wants and, in some circumstances, influencing it. Often heard phrases are: "What do you want?" and "Do you have another wish?" There are several methods of determining or influencing the customer's desires. Targeted offers ("I have something else very special for you.") often lead to (mutual) success. Methods such as AIDA are designed to help close the sale.

• Attention - the attention of the customer is attracted
• Interest - he is interested in the product
• Desire - the desire for the product is awakened
• Action - the customer buys the product

Advertising should help to create or stabilise desires.

Traders who only want to sell without taking the customer's wishes into account may succeed for a short time, but hardly at all in the long run. In this sense, trade resembles the iterated prisoner's dilemma. Most of the time, cooperation pays off as a successful strategy. Sometimes defecting ("pulling the wool over the other's eyes") is individually more successful, at least in the short term.

Wish List

Before Christmas, children write down their wishes on wish lists for Santa Claus or the Christ Child. While writing down their wishes, they become intensively involved with them. In Advent, the joint and secret crafting of Christmas presents had a long tradition. Today it is often replaced by Christmas shopping.

Birthday wish

The birthday wish is ­usually directed towards a material, but often also an ideal birthday gift. Often the fulfillment of the birthday wish is kept secret until the birthday, so that the gift is a surprise.

Requested program

The choice of programmes on television is made dependent on the wishes of the viewers. Examples of this are long-running TV series such as "Wünsch Dir was", "Wunschfilm" and "Wunschbriefkasten".

Desire to have children

An unfulfilled desire to have children is often a major problem for young families. Medical progress has been able to fulfil many couples' desire to have children. The "wish child pill", on the other hand, is usually not used to fulfil a wish for a child, but to prevent a child (in this sense it is a euphemism) or to postpone the possibility of a birth until later in life planning. However, unwanted children often have major problems. Many people today also no longer wish to have children of their own.

Wish-fulfilling medicine

Wish-fulfilling medicine refers to non-medically indicated interventions in the human organism with the aim of improving, changing or maintaining form, function, cognitive abilities or emotional states (neuro-enhancement), which are carried out under medical responsibility.

Christmas Wish List


Birthday wish while blowing out candles

Philosophy

Desire and will

Desire and will are related. The will is often a strong desire. The desire is different from the will:

• Decisiveness: The desire is related to the longing. It differs from the will in the degree of decisiveness or determination: the wish represents the early stage of the will, still being hesitantly formulated, weighed and considered. With the will, on the other hand, one is at least theoretically certain to commit oneself to the now clearly defined desired. (The expression "to fulfil a wish" shows that the wish can be the expression of a lack that wants to be remedied, and that one can also be the one to remedy it, compare also scarcity).
• Punctual: The wish refers to a particular event or object, the occurrence or receipt of which fulfills the wish. The will, on the other hand, is usually more of a prolonged state of mind that can bring about various events in succession.
• Addressee: The will acts on its own initiative, without the direct influence of foreign influences. The wish is often directed to a specific addressee. One can wish something from someone and wish something for someone. The wisher can also be his own addressee. One can grant a wish to someone else.

Epicurus: Three kinds of desires

The Greek philosopher Epicurus distinguished three types of desires:

• natural and necessary desires
• natural and unnecessary desires
• nonnatural and unnecessary desires

Natural and necessary desires ensure survival. These include food, drink, nutrition and clothing. They correspond to basic human needs, so these desires must always be satisfied. Natural and non-necessary desires are pleasing to the senses, but are actually unnecessary for survival. Often, however, the satisfaction of these desires is beneficial. Non-natural and non-necessary desires are caused by an opinion. These desires, according to Epicurus, should never be satisfied. Epicurus was in favor of moderation, for example he said, "The wealth that has no limit is a great poverty."

Wish fulfillment in dreams by Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud wrote that dreams were hidden wish fulfillments. They belonged to the inner essence of the dream, to the substantial determinants of every dream. In dreams, repressed and tabooed desires appear in symbolically disguised form, which push into consciousness but are initially warded off by consciousness. Freud assumed the existence of an inner dream-work mechanism or censor that transforms very strong, socially unacceptable desires (mostly of a sexual nature) into symbolic images that are not immediately comprehensible.

Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations

In his Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein describes desire as a characteristic experience, like recognition, remembering. The wish seems to already know what will fulfil it, it anticipates the future. A wish is unsatisfied because it is an expectation of something. The sentence "I fancy an apple" is therefore not an expression of a wish, but of an unsatisfaction. In many cases the word "desire" conceals what is desired. The fact that an event silences a wish does not mean that it fulfils it. Words like "may he come" can be loaded with a wish. At the same time, wishes are sometimes difficult to express.

Wittgenstein distinguishes between desire and will. If one moves one's arm arbitrarily, then one is not using a means to bring about the movement. Even a wish is not such a means. The will, if it is not to be a kind of wish, must be the action itself, for example speaking, writing, talking. A wish is not to raise one's arm. If one lifts it, one has not yet wished to lift it. A wish is, for example, when one hopes to draw a circle without mistakes.