Satisfaction is whether or not that state is obtained
Challenging scenario for this view:
A man is rushing to catch a important train to NYC and boards at the last second, only to realize afterward that the train is heading to the wrong destination. Was his desire satisfied?
No - eliminitivist
We reject that the than man desired to get on the train to a wrong destination, because his ‘true’ desire involved to see the doctor in NYC, which is inconsistent with being on the wrong train.
Problem:
The doctor was going to tell him if his disease was curable, so what his ‘true’ desire is the cure, not the train to NYC (this can be done ad infinitum: his true desire is not the cure but rather health -> happiness -> ‘the good’).
I.e. the naive eliminitivist accidentally eliminates all desires other than the desire for ‘the good’.
Yes - separatist
Introduce another desire to make sense of why the man is upset despite the desire being satisfied. The ‘catch-this-train’ desire was satisfied, but ‘get to NYC’ that was not satisfied.
Problem
This account makes the desires seem separate/atomic, but why do they seem so intimiately connected to each other?
If he learned just before that it was going to the wrong destination, his desire to catch the (that) train would instantly vanish.
Makes desires in principle unconnected from what is good for us.