need

need A need is something that is deemed necessary, especially something that is considered necessary for the survival of the person, organization, or whatever. The concept is widely used in the social sciences, with especial attention being placed on so-called human needs. Needs are commonly contrasted with wants (or desires), needs referring to things that are necessary, wants to those that are desired. Since the concept itself suggests that needs ought to be satisfied, it has frequently been invoked in the rhetoric of political and policy debates, notably in support of claims for action and intervention. It is central to discussions of poverty and deprivation and to welfare—a term referring to the meeting of human needs. Not surprisingly, however, the specification of needs is strongly contested. It is not too difficult to get agreement over a list of basic requirements for survival—such as the physiological and material needs for food, sleep, and shelter. However, determining necessary levels of these requirements is more difficult. Moreover, although academics and policy-makers may agree on a core of basic human needs, many would dispute whether this exhausts the set of basic human needs. Some would wish to include psychological and social needs, such as the need for love and care, for companionship, for the opportunity to learn, and so forth, as universal requirements. It has also been suggested that such needs can be viewed hierarchically. There is disagreement, too, over whether needs should be defined in absolute or relative terms, should be assessed objectively or subjectively, and indeed over the value of the concept itself.

Sociologists, especially those of a functional persuasion, have also used the concept of need in studying the functioning of societies. Talcott Parsons, for example, explicated the functional prerequisites of the social system—the things necessary for the survival of the society—such as adequate motivational support for the system itself. In a similar vein, Marxists talk of the needs of capitalism, mentioning most frequently the needs for production, reproduction, and legitimation. However, critics have pointed both to the difficulty of identifying the needs of society with any precision, and to the frequently tautological nature of the endeavour. See also NEEDS, HIERARCHY OF.