D.1. Need:
A state of disturbance - A state of departure from order.
Axiomatic Derivation:
1. All organisms are systems.
2. Each system is an orderly state.
3. Each orderly state remains in an orderly state so long as it receives supply of some certain quantities, and qualities from the external environment.
4. A short supply of these quantities, or qualities yields a disturbance - a departure from that orderly existence.
5. These supplies aforementioned - 3 and 4 - are Needs of that system.
6. Disturbances are debilitating for any system, or organism.
7. Humans being organisms are systems.
8. Humans being systems have Needs.
9. Human beings having Needs rely on external supply of quantities, and qualities which secure their existence.
10. Observation: It is important to note, for generality, that existence does not imply subsistence only but more broadly all that matters including our goals. For a detailed exposition of the concept of Need kindly proceed further to read Explanations.
Explanations:
E.1.
Note:
The following is an appendage to an idea by Menger, and is only meant to expand his views. It is not a summary. Need as a state of disturbance is an implicit concept in his Principles of Economics (pages 51 and 52). However, it is implicit in his later discussions in the same chapter (Ch 01) what I am only trying to make explicit in the following. Moreover, I believe this concept - Need - deserves much attention for reasons of planning as shall become clear later.
E.2.
An Exposition of Need as an Outcome of Order, and Uses of This Concept.
Need is implicitly defined in Menger as a disturbance. Disturbance, however, implies a departure from order. And Need as departure from order implies we already have a conception of order before we may identify a state of disturbance - a departure from order, a need. Accordingly, a need cannot be perceived if our minds do not first conceive an order.
E.x. Consider following series of examples:
a) If I am to live a healthy lifestyle, this order of my lifestyle is disturbed if I do not keep myself hydrated, say by drinking 2.5 litres of water minimum a day. If I drink less, there is a need to drink more. Likewise, I must consume bread to provide my body with carbohydrates which are necessary for maintaining my health - Their short supply causes a disturbance.
b) Consider further, if I have no bread but only flour, water, heat, and my own labour, I must now bake my own bread. However, say I have no skill or knowledge of how to bake bread, or say there is no heat, or no water, if one of these inputs is absent, it causes waves of disturbances; first it disturbs the order of bread - we would have a piece of moist flour in absence of fire for instance. Second, it would not relieve us from our hunger or of our needed carbohydrates - the disturbance perpetuates.
c) Alternatively, suppose I begin to eat more sweets until I develop a dependency on them - I always want to eat more sweets. I feel urges so strongly as to be difficult to suppress, and eventually I develop a sweets addiction. A short supply of sweets now disturbs my mood.
d) Finally, consider a person who feels the need to suppress hunger when it actually exists in their body in order to fulfil his religious duties in a particular month. Not doing so disturbs his view of how things ought be over the course of a year.
What we may infer from these varied examples is this: First, our mind conceives an order out of our bodily experiences, our psychological attachments, our social settings, or in fact any experiences or observations. And second, our mind perceives needs on the basis of this conceived order. Consider further elaboration of previous examples as follows.
a) In case of hunger and thirst, for instance, it is our body experiences which develop a picture of order in our minds; We know consequences, from past experiences, of not eating or drinking certain quantities, no matter how slight these experiences were. We picture an order of eating a certain amount of bread, vegetables, fresh and dry fruits etc etc, alongside with certain amounts of water. This order we call healthy living. On occasions this order may be disturbed and we experience episodes of pain which then re-enforces our conceived order of healthy living.
b) In the case of sweets, our addiction is more psychological and we feel urges so often that we picture ourselves consuming sweets in every breakfast, and deserts after every evening meal. This becomes our conceived order of consumption. A short supply of deserts on a particular day disturbs the order - we feel a need for sweets.
c) In case of religious duties we conceive an order of divine significance governing all affairs of this mortal life, and to which we ought to submit. Whether the critical judgements of science and reason stand in its diametric opposition matters little.
A complexity arises in the minds of those who conceive two opposing orders - scientific and non scientific. How they resolve it depends on their other needs, or their other conceived orders.
d) Finally, in case of a social order, it too dictates needs; For instance, if I and my female friend, of our free will and consent, enter in an intimate relation but we live in a society which has tabooed such relations, we disturb the order of this society, and those who wish to uphold this society's dated values perceive a need of discouraging our acts, often through a system of penalties. Alternatively, for me and my friend, now there is a need for approval from elders etc etc, because penalty implies disturbance of our social image, unless we have an appetite for risk, and a desire to change social order (a different order we conceive in our minds).
An order, and therefore a need, thus can have material or immaterial, psychological or social origins.
And as such our perception too plays a significant role. While order is conceived in mind, regardless of its origins, it is perception which informs us of a need.
For instance, while security, living in an environment where we can trust, is a need of every human, it is perception of threat which determines whether an individual feels his order of safety to be disturbed or not - feels a need of safety. A threat may be real, but our perception of things around us may present a picture of safety, or a threat may be entirely absent actually but exists as a consequence of our misperception - say a black cat crosses our path. In some extreme cases, a paranoia may prevail, and a person perceives ordinary acts to be threatening because the conceived order of safety now is formed of ideas far from reality, not originating from experiences but from suppositions and whims.
Menger uses this fact of misperception to define an important division among goods - the Imaginary goods which exists solely because people either imagine non-existent needs, or imagine non-existent uses.
Hence, a need is perceived only if first an order is conceived by us, whether consistent with reality or not matters little.
Implications of Concept of Order-Need For Planning:
a) Firstly for any need, we must inquire what order establishes this need to know if it certainly is a need or not. Or: Only that without which an order is disturbed or disintegrated is a need.
b) Secondly far more importantly: For any established order, we can now predict all its needs in all contingencies; Be it a family, a firm, a business, an industry, a nation etc, order in any case pre-establishes all future needs. Or: All future needs are pre-determined at the time of conception of an order.
Reference: Menger, Carl (2004). Principles of Economics, Online edition, The Mises Institute, 2004. (Chapter 01 page 51-52)