Scribd
Upload
207 views5 pages

A Theory of Human Need: Len Doyal and Ian Gough

This document proposes a theory of human need that identifies physical health and autonomy as basic human needs. It argues that certain societal preconditions are also necessary for individuals to satisfy their basic needs, including economic security, education, and political freedom. The theory aims to establish a framework for measuring and optimizing levels of need satisfaction both within and between societies in an objective, universal manner. It acknowledges challenges in applying the theory in practice and relativist critiques, but maintains that some degree of basic need satisfaction is inevitable and indispensable for human welfare and liberation.

Uploaded by

Jesica ortiz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
207 views5 pages

A Theory of Human Need: Len Doyal and Ian Gough

This document proposes a theory of human need that identifies physical health and autonomy as basic human needs. It argues that certain societal preconditions are also necessary for individuals to satisfy their basic needs, including economic security, education, and political freedom. The theory aims to establish a framework for measuring and optimizing levels of need satisfaction both within and between societies in an objective, universal manner. It acknowledges challenges in applying the theory in practice and relativist critiques, but maintains that some degree of basic need satisfaction is inevitable and indispensable for human welfare and liberation.

Uploaded by

Jesica ortiz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

A Theory of Human Need

Len Doyal and Ian Gough


Contents

List of Tables xi

List of Figures xii

Preface xiii

Acknowledgements xvi

Introduction 1

I RELATIVISM AND THE PROBLEM OF HUMAN


NEED 7

1 Who Needs Human Needs? 9


Orthodox economics: needs are preferences 9
The New Right: needs are dangerous 10
Marxism: needs are historical 12
Critiques of cultural imperialism: needs are group
specific 13
Radical democrats: needs are discursive 16
Phenomenological arguments: needs are socially
constructed 19

2 The Inevitability of Human Needs 22


Orthodox economics: circularity of evaluation 22
The New Right: universality after all 24
Marxism: the cynical gaze of determinism 27
Critiques of cultural imperialism: the objectivity of
oppression 29
Radical democrats: romanticising group morality 30
Phenomenological arguments: social realities kick back 31

vii
viii Contents

3 The Grammar of `Need' 35


Needs as drives 35
Needs as goals and strategies 39
Needs, relativism and morality 42

II A THEORY OF HUMAN NEED 47

4 Physical Health and Autonomy: the Basic Needs of


Persons 49
Needs as the preconditions for human action and
interaction 50
Survival/physical health as a basic need 56
Autonomy as a basic need 59
Problems in comparing need-satisfaction 69

5 Societal Preconditions for the Satisfaction of Basic


Needs 76
The social dimension of individual autonomy 76
Four societal preconditions 80

6 Human Liberation and the Right to Need-Satisfaction 91


Duties, rights and moral reciprocity 92
Special obligations and the optimisation of
need-satisfaction 104
Relativism and the prospect for human liberation 108
Appendix: the rights of enemies to need-satisfaction 112

7 Optimising Need-Satisfaction in Theory 116


Habermas and rational communication 120
Rawls, justice and optimal need-satisfaction 126
Revising Rawls 132
Critiques of Rawls 135
Internationalism, ecology and future generations 141

III HUMAN NEEDS IN PRACTICE 149

8 Measuring Need-Satisfaction 151


Social indicators and other direct measures of human
welfare 151

Satisfiers and `intermediate needs' 155
Contents ix

Standards of basic need-satisfaction 159


Standards of intermediate need-satisfaction 161
Problems in devising social indicators of
need-satisfaction 164

9 Physical Health and Autonomy 171


Survival and disability 172
Physical disease 176
Autonomy and mental illness 180
Learning and cognitive skills 181
Social roles and opportunities to participate 184
Critical autonomy 187

10 Intermediate Needs 191


Food and Water 194
Housing 196
A non-hazardous work environment 199
A non-hazardous physical environment 200
Health care 201
Security in childhood 204
Significant primary relationships 207
Economic security 210
Physical security 212
Education 214
Safe birth control and child-bearing 217

11 Societal Preconditions for Optimising Need-Satisfaction 222


More an the universality of human rights 222
Procedural preconditions for negative freedom 225
Material preconditions for positive freedom 230
Economic sustainability and the rights of future
generations 242

12 Charting Human Welfare: Need-Satisfaction in the


Three Worlds 247
Charting objective welfare 247
Basic and intermediate needs 249
Societal preconditions 261
Gender differences in need-satisfaction 265
Conclusion: global patterns of welfare 269
x Contents

IV THE POLITICS OF HUMAN NEED 275

13 Towards a Political Economy of Need-Satisfaction 277


Economic development and need-satisfaction in the
Third World 277
State socialism and need-satisfaction in the
Second World 283
Advanced capitalism and need-satisfaction in the
First World 287
Global dilemmas 293
Towards a political economy of need-satisfaction 294

14 A Dual Political Strategy 297


The dual strategy in theory 298
The argument for centralisation 300
The argument for decentralisation 306
The dual strategy in practice 309

Notes 313
Bibliographv 328
Index 349

You might also like