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Desire seems to be characterized by two distinct features. On the one hand, desire motivates actions directed towards its object. On the other hand, to desire an object seems to mean to enjoy or appreciate it. Theories of desire are divided over which aspect is essential, or seek to identify them more closely than might appear. I will use the acquisition of desires through experience to argue that desire is in fact a complex mental state with two distinct and sometimes discordant aspects. The result for the agent is an opacity of certain important properties of desire, and an obstacle to the satisfaction of his desires. I will attempt to show that the most common propositions for characterizing the epistemology of desire do not overcome this obstacle. I will propose a theory of the work of elucidating desire that gives an important role to a form of practical reasoning and to evaluative beliefs, and I will consider various ways in which the latter can guide the exploratory acts sometimes necessary to pierce the opacity of desire.
