Editing Need (section)

== Other views ==
The concept of [[intellectual need]] has been studied in [[education]], as well as in [[social work]], where an Oxford Bibliographies Online: Social Work entry on [https://books.google.com/books?id=pQT3TnfjtwoC&dq=oxford+bibliographies+online+social+work+human+need&pg=GBS.PP1 Human Need] reviewed the literature as of 2008 on human need from a variety of disciplines. Also see the 2008<ref>Dover, M. A., & Joseph, B. H. R. (2008). Human needs: Overview. In T. Mizrahi & L. Davis (Eds.), The encyclopedia of social work (20th ed., pp. 398–406). New York: Oxford University Press and National Association of Social Workers.</ref> and pending 2015 entries on Human Needs: Overview in the Encyclopedia of Social Work.<ref>Dover, M. A. (2015a, in press). Human needs: Overview. In C. Franklin (Ed.), The encyclopedia of social work (Electronic ed.). New York: Oxford University Press and National Association of Social Workers.</ref>

In his 1844 ''Paris Manuscripts'', [[Karl Marx]] famously defined humans as "creatures of need" or "needy creatures" who experienced suffering in the process of learning and working to meet their needs.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/preface.htm|title=Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844|first=Karl|last=Marx|website=www.marxists.org}}</ref> These needs were both physical needs as well as moral, emotional and intellectual needs. According to Marx, human development is characterized by the fact that in the process of meeting their needs, humans develop new needs, implying that at least to some extent they make and remake their own nature. This idea is discussed in more detail by the Hungarian philosopher [[Ágnes Heller]] in ''A Theory of Need in Marx'' (London: Allison and Busby, 1976). Political economy professor Michael Lebowitz<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.sfu.ca/economics/faculty/mike_lebowitz.html |title=Michael Lebowitz, Professor, SFU Dept. Of Economics |access-date=2017-09-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070426082937/http://www.sfu.ca/economics/faculty/mike_lebowitz.html |archive-date=2007-04-26 |url-status=dead }}</ref> has developed the Marxian interpretation of needs further in two editions of his book ''Beyond Capital''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://us.macmillan.com/|title=Macmillan - Distinguished & Award Winning Global Publisher in 41 countries|website=US Macmillan}}</ref>

Professor [[György Márkus]] systematised Marx's ideas about needs as follows: humans are different from other animals because their vital activity, work, is mediated to the satisfaction of needs (an animal who manufactures tools to produce other tools or his/her satisfactory), which makes a human being a universal natural being capable to turn the whole nature into the subject of his/her needs and his/her activity, and develops his/her needs and abilities (essential human forces) and develops himself/herself, a historical-universal being. Work generates the breach of the animal subject-object fusion, thus generating the possibility of human conscience and self-conscience, which tend to universality (the universal conscious being). A human being's conditions as a social being are given by work, but not only by work as it is not possible to live like a human being without a relationship with others: work is social because human beings work for each other with means and abilities produced by prior generations. Human beings are also free entities able to accomplish, during their lifetime, the objective possibilities generated by social evolution, on the basis of their conscious decisions. Freedom should be understood both in a negative (freedom to decide and to establish relationships) and a positive sense (dominion over natural forces and development of human creativity) of the essential human forces. To sum up, the essential interrelated traits of human beings are: a) work is their vital activity; b) human beings are conscious beings; c) human beings are social beings; d) human beings tend to universality, which manifests in the three previous traits and make human beings natural-historical-universal, social-universal and universal conscious entities, and e) human beings are free.<ref name="Jornada">[http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/03/09/index.php?section=opinion&article=026o1eco "Necesidades humanas" - Julio Boltvinik] (in Spanish)</ref>

In his texts about what he calls "moral economics", professor Julio Boltvinik Kalinka asserts that the ideas exposed by [[David Wiggins]] about needs are correct but insufficient: needs are of a normative nature but they are also factual. These "gross ethical concepts" (as stated by [[Hilary Putnam]]) should also include an evaluation: [[Ross Fitzgerald]]'s criticism of Maslow's ideas rejects the concept of [[Objectivity (philosophy)|objective]] human needs and uses instead the concept of [[preferences]].

[[Marshall Rosenberg]]'s model of Compassionate Communication, also known as [[Nonviolent Communication]] (NVC)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cnvc.org|title=Center for Nonviolent Communication: A Global Organisation|website=www.cnvc.org}}</ref> makes the distinction between universal human needs (what sustains and motivates human life) and specific strategies used to meet these needs. Feelings are seen as neither good nor bad, right nor wrong, but as indicators of when human needs are met or unmet. In contrast to Maslow, Rosenberg's model does not place needs in a hierarchy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cnvc.org/needs.htm|title=Needs List<!-- Bot generated title -->|website=cnvc.org}}</ref>

Rosenberg's model supports people developing awareness of feelings as indicators, of what needs are alive within them and others, moment by moment; to forefront needs, to make it more likely and possible for two or more people, to arrive at mutually agreed upon strategies to meet the needs of all parties. Rosenberg diagrams this sequence in part like this: Observations > Feelings > Needs > Requests where identifying needs is most significant to the process.

People also talk about the needs of a community or organisation. Such needs might include demand for a particular type of business, for a certain government program or entity, or for individuals with particular skills. This is an example of [[metonymy]] in language and presents with the logical problem of [[Reification (fallacy)|reification]].

Medical needs. 
In clinical medical practice, it may be difficult to distinguish between treatment a patient needs; treatment that may be desirable;and treatment that could be deemed frivolous. At one end of this spectrum for example, any practising clinician would accept that a child with fulminating meningococcal meningitis needs rapid access to medical care. At the other end, rarely could a young healthy woman be deemed to need breast augmentation. Numerous surgical procedures fall into this spectrum: particularly, this is so in our ageing Western population, where there is an ever-increasing prevalence of painful, but not life-threatening disorders: typified by the ageing spine.