By Emma Gregory
Introduction
C.S. Lewis’s argument from desire highlights our sense of longing for something beyond our present world, a difficult-to-capture intuition that we are made for something more. Moments of such yearning are instrumental in Lewis’s own journey to faith, and these experiences resonate with many readers. Colloquially, we often say that as human creatures we have a “hole” in our heart that only Christ can satisfy. With his characteristic eloquence, Lewis draws attention to this incompleteness we feel, prompting introspection in thoughtful readers.
Made for Another World
In Lewis’s Mere Christianity, we find a key text for this argument: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.”1
Structuring the Argument from Desire
We might rephrase Lewis’s prose into a logically valid argument as follows:
Premise (1): If I have a desire for which no satisfaction exists on this earth, then it is probable that the satisfaction to my desire may be found elsewhere, namely in another world which I have the potential, at some point in time, to access.
Premise (2): I have a desire for which no satisfaction exists on this earth.
Conclusion: Therefore, it is probable that the satisfaction to my desire exists in another world, and I have the potential to access this world at some point in time.
This argument construction follows the modus ponens argument form, one of the basic valid argument structures presented in an introductory logic course. If we presume that premises (1) and (2) are true, then the conclusion logically follows. From here, our task is to offer compelling reasons to accept premises (1) and (2) as true.
Defending Premise (2)
The proposition of premise (2), “I have a desire for which no satisfaction exists on this earth,” perhaps reads as the more immediately intuitive of the two premises for many of us. If the presence of such a desire is not evident on first glance, Lewis offers a poignant description of this bittersweet longing in his autobiography Surprised by Joy.
Sehnsucht
Throughout his autobiography, Lewis highlights moments of Sehnsucht, a deep yearning for something inexplicable yet out of reach. He employs the term “Joy” to capture this feeling, describing it as “an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other
Satisfaction. . . . I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world.”2
He further characterizes Joy, saying: “All Joy reminds. It is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago or further away or still ‘about to be.’”3 Joy for Lewis seems akin to nostalgia, the ache for a past moment we so dearly wish to relive that it hurts to remember; but in spite of the ache, we cling to whatever fleeting glimpse of that moment we can muster. These moments of Joy for Lewis, of longing not for the past but for some intangible goodness, serve as instrumental in his journey to faith. Here, I think, lies the strength of the argument.
Defending Premise (1)
Premise (1): If I have a desire for which no satisfaction exists on this earth, then it is probable that the satisfaction to my desire may be found elsewhere, namely in another world, and I have the potential to access this world at some point in time.
This premise is perhaps less intuitive, but we can construct a compelling case for accepting this proposition as true in my view. To claim this proposition as false requires one to contrive a scenario in which I have some desire for which no satisfaction exists on earth (making the antecedent of the conditional true), and in which the satisfaction cannot be found elsewhere (making the consequent of the conditional false). So, in this scenario, I have some desire for which no satisfaction exists anywhere. Some may be willing to accept this consequence, but they receive the burden of construing a plausible explanation for how I might come to possess a desire for which no satisfaction exists.
A Caveat to the Conclusion
Notice the conclusion to this argument states that it is probable that the satisfaction to my desire exists in another world, which I have the potential to access, rather than explicitly positing the existence of God. Consequently, this argument offers a small but valuable piece to apologetic discourse, perhaps a starting point to prompt investigation into the possibility of something beyond the physical world.
For believers, the argument from desire may prompt reflection on the goodness of God. God is gracious to craft our being in such a way that our telos, our purpose or end, lies in him alone. Only in Christ may we find satisfaction for our deepest desires, and we flourish when we find our delight in relationship with him.
Notes
- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, in The C.S. Lewis Signature Classics (HarperCollins, 2017), 114.
- C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (Harcourt, Brace & World, 1955), 18.\
- C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, 78.