Good one!   

Hi WS,

Natural desires of themselves can't be a cause for desiring incompatible things, can they?  Assuming Adam and Eve existed in a state of perfection, this perfection suggests that each choice before the fall was perfect in every way....hence, all natural desires would in perfection of the intellect be directed only to the perfection of each desire.  Something must stimulate natural desires in such a way that they become unnatural or corrupt.

The question is still begged--the cause of desiring incompatible things must first be resolved before the question in the OP can be answered, imo.

I think you miss my point.  Reference perfection again: if every desire, thought, sensation, feeling, emotion and judgment were made from a wholly perfect state, no one would want things to be different.  In a state of perfection, why would we want anything to be different?  What's better than perfect?  How does one improve on perfection?  The philosopher who noted that people desired things that were incompatible begs the same question.  If we assume from Scripture that Adam and Eve operated in perfection in all inner reality (spirit, body, mind of the individual) interacting with a perfect external reality, there exists no room for "incompatible" things.  Perfection has no room for incompatibility; incompatibility references imperfection.

What did Adam stain reality with when he ate the fruit that humans began desiring incompatible things?  The desire of incompatible things requires a pathology, one that corrupts the perfection of desire such that incompatible things become appealing.