A complex phenomenon of human life involving emotions and actions which are part of the process of wanting something or someone. In classical terms, desire is an appetite. Thomas Aquinas describes an appetitive power as one that is “naturally moved by what is apprehended.” In this conception, desire is the principle behind movement— it is the movement of the will toward something perceived as an absent good. Jean-Michel Oughourlian (Girard’s close collaborator) and theologian James Alison also describe desire as a kind of movement: it is the “draw” seen in babies which pulls them toward other humans and society. We are drawn to people and things through mimesis, which “is to psychology what gravity is to physics,” writes Alison. According to René Girard, desires are different than needs because they require a model. “Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and he turns to others in order to make up his mind,” he wrote. This makes desire an entirely human phenomenon if desire is thought of as the forward movement of human beings toward ever-new objects of desire—something not shared by animals. Desire is the principle that drives the human search for transcendence.