This chapter defends Hypotheticalism's account of the nature of desire. Chapters 2 through 7 were neutral on the nature of desire, but in this chapter it is argued that in order for it to be possible to be motivated by our reasons without thinking about their background conditions, the background conditions on reasons must be the kind of thing to be motivationally efficacious. It is argued, following Scanlon, that desires involve directed attention and represent certain things as being reasons. But it is also shown that this thesis does not require that reasons be part of the analysis of desires; on the contrary, Hypotheticalism can explain, while Scanlon's view cannot, how reasons get to be part of the content of desires.
Keywords: background conditions, T.M. Scanlon, directed attention, analysis, content