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Wellsprings
soul

Desire / Appetition (Orexis)

ὄρεξις

Nothing moves an animal but desire reaching toward a goal — the inner pull Aristotle made the engine of all action.

Orexis is Aristotle's word for the whole faculty of desire — the reaching-out of a living thing toward something it perceives as good or pleasant. He splits it into three kinds: rational wish (boulēsis), spirited drive (thymos), and bodily appetite (epithymia). On his account, no creature ever moves itself unless desire and thought work together to set it in motion, which makes orexis the hidden mover behind every step an animal takes and every choice a person makes.

Where this idea shows up

14 Greek sources·1 Jewish-canon citation

Where to read it