In my previous framework post introducing the four types of transformational desires, the quadrants of the 2x2 matrix were aspiration, ambition, cultivation, and refinement, each one describing a different type of desires people have for undergoing transformations.
While I like this framework very much, and again appreciate Agnes Collard’s inspiring it, it leaves me with a couple of conundrums around terminology.
Aspirations
One, I have from the very beginning (ie, since 1994) used the term “aspiration” to refer to all transformational desires. Long before I had read Callard’s book and other philosophical tomes, it simply seemed like exactly the right term.
Whenever I think about new ideas, a dictionary and thesaurus are constant companions.
The Oxford English Dictionary – whenever I think about new ideas, a dictionary and thesaurus are constant companions – says that the word “aspiration” originally came from the Latin word for “to breath upon”, so aspiration originally meant “the action of breathing” (and is still used that way, particularly in healthcare situations). Over time it came to take on the connotation of “inspiration”, however, and the definition that applies here is “The action of aspiring; steadfast desire or longing for something above one.”[1] This does give the term a lofty bar to overcome; the OED’s first citation is in fact from Shakespeare (Troilus and Cressida, 1606), “That spirit of his In aspiration lifts him from the earth”.