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This book will necessarily discuss an array of technical terms and abstract concepts. To define all of them would require a glossary almost as long as the book itself. Included here, therefore, are short explanations addressed to the different adjectives that may be used to define ‘need’. Even this list is not exhaustive. Insofar as these key terms intersect and overlap, these definitions may help to clarify the connections and differences between them: often terms overlap with or are virtually synonymous with other terms, or else terms can be used in quite different ways. Where other terms have been mentioned in the book these will usually have been defined within the text and their definitions may be accessed via the index.

absolute need: Most often used to denote the opposite of ‘relative’ need. It may refer to whatever may be held to be absolutely necessary for physical survival or for minimal human dignity, though as with the term ‘absolute poverty’, definitions of absolute necessity vary.

agency need: Used in relation to a person’s need of individual freedom and a capacity for autonomous action. The opposite of individual ‘agency’ may usually be thought to be constraining social ‘structure’, but when used in conjunction with ‘need’, its opposite may sometimes be considered to be ‘vital’ need, thus drawing a distinction between free human consciousness and the determinants of biological life.

axiological need: A term used to refer to the need for experiences that have inherent value and that make life worthwhile. It can be contrasted with ‘existential need’, but it may also be linked with ‘ontological need’ when it is concerned with the meaning of that which a person values.

basic need: May be used as a synonym for ‘absolute’ need or to denote the opposite of ‘higher’ need. The term generally refers to whatever may be fundamentally necessary for survival and the avoidance of harm. Confusingly, perhaps, it is sometimes also used as a synonym for ‘universal’ need, not so much in the sense referred to later in this glossary but as a way of referring to the elemental needs that every human being has.

circumstantial need: A term accorded a specific meaning in this book and which refers to need that is ‘thinly’ conceived and is practically interpreted. For policy purposes, what people need is here judged in relation to what is minimally and morally justifiable in the specific context of an individual’s personal circumstances. (Some philosophical texts may use the term more generally as a synonym for what is defined later in this glossary as ‘substantive’ need and contrast it with constitutional need – a term not used in this book – namely needs that are in some way socially or institutionally constructed.)

common need: A term accorded a specific meaning in this book and which refers to need that is ‘thickly’ conceived but is practically interpreted. For policy purposes, people’s needs here stem from their social nature; to the requirements that attend one’s belonging within a society or community and which are defined in terms of the functions and experiences one has in common with others.

comparative need: A form of need defined with reference to any relative deficit established through the comparative analysis of the living standards or the services received in different places, by different communities or by different social groups. One’s comparative needs may be defined with reference to the things one lacks but which other people have.

cultural need: May be used to refer to needs which are culturally constituted and stem, for example, from the requirements of a particular religion or belief system, or to needs satisfiers which are culturally relative and stem, for example, from specific social customs or cultural practices.

derivative need: Can be used to denote the opposite of ‘basic’ need, but like the term ‘intermediate’ need, it refers to the things people need in order to satisfy more basic needs. Money, for example, is a need we derive from our need to buy food and clothing.

discursive need: Need that has been constituted through discourse; through the meanings people generate between themselves when they talk or communicate with one another and through their shared practices and conventions. Need constructed through popular discourse may sometimes be described as ‘socially constituted’. Need constructed though political discourse may sometimes be described as ‘ideologically constituted’.

existential need: A protean term with, potentially, a multitude of definitions. It is used fairly conventionally throughout this book to refer simply to that which is needed for human existence, equating broadly with ‘physical’ need and its various synonyms, and it is used in contrast to ‘axiological’ and ‘ontological’ needs. Other users of the term, however, have expanded it to incorporate these and other wider meanings of human need.

experiential need: Refers to need as it is experienced. The term combines the meaning of ‘felt’ need on the one hand and ‘substantive’ need on the other.

expressed need: A ‘felt’ need that has been formulated as a personal or political demand.

false need: The opposite of ‘true’ need. The term is used with reference to things people want, demand, or think they need but which are (in the opinion of the observer) not needed. False, ‘artificial’, or ‘manufactured’ need may sometimes correspond to ‘subjective’ need in the sense that it may occur when people are addicted, deluded or misguided, but critics contend that any need that is genuinely experienced as a ‘felt’ need cannot be dismissed as false.

felt need: A term that is broadly synonymous with ‘subjective’ need and which refers to needs that are subjectively experienced by an individual or intersubjectively experienced by a group.

higher need: Often used to denote the opposite of morally inferior, base or ‘basic’ needs. The concept refers not to luxuries, but to more refined human needs, such as intellectual, creative or spiritual pursuits.

inherent need: A term developed throughout this book to refer to needs that are inherent to the human individual not only because she is a biological organism, but by virtue of her very humanity. The notion of inherent need requires a theory or idea of personhood and of what it means to be a person. Such theories or assumptions may well be implicit, but they are usually given: they are established or prescribed abstractly, or from the top-down.

instrumental need: A term that means much the same as ‘derivative’ need or ‘intermediate’ need, in that it refers to things we must have or do not for their own sake but as a means of surviving or avoiding harm. The meeting of instrumental need is a means to an end.

intermediate need: A term with a meaning similar to that for ‘derivative’ need in that it refers to the things we need in order to fulfil other more immediate or ‘basic’ needs. In order to be healthy, we need food, water, shelter and so forth. To achieve human autonomy, we need physical security, basic education and so forth. Intermediate needs may well be ‘relative’ in the sense that what is necessary to meet one’s ‘basic’ needs can vary depending, for example, on the climate and the kind of society in which one is living.

interpreted need: A term developed throughout this book to refer to needs that are constructed or attributed to the human individual by practical interpretation. Interpreted needs may be established by observation or analysis, or through claims or demands, but they are established or articulated concretely, or from the bottom-up.

material need: Best understood as an alternative or synonym for ‘substantive need’, though the term may be used more specifically to refer specifically to the material substances upon which human life depends.

mental need: A term applied to psychological or mental health needs or the inner needs of the noumenal self in contrast to the ‘physical needs’ of the human body.

natural need: May be used as a synonym for ‘material need’ to refer to human beings’ needs for the products of nature, but more usually as an ‘inherent need’ definition premised upon normative or teleological assumptions about what constitutes human nature.

normative need: A term used to refer to needs determined by the normative judgement of policy makers, administrators or experts, including scientific experts and especially welfare professionals, such as doctors and other health professionals, teachers and social workers.

objective need: A term most often used to denote the opposite of ‘subjective’ need and which refers to needs that are externally verifiable or scientifically observable.

ontological need: The things we need in order to maintain our individual identity, self-awareness and sense of meaningful being. Ontological need may be contrasted with ‘existential’ need, which refers to what we need merely to exist in a material sense.

particular need: A term accorded a specific meaning in this book and which refers to need that is thinly conceived but theorised to be inherent to the human subject. For policy purposes, what people are assumed to need is defined in terms of their objective individual interests and the opportunities they need in order to compete as freely choosing economic actors.

physical need: Meaning much the same as terms such as ‘vital’, ‘somatic’, ‘physiological’ or ‘viscerogenic need’, alluding to the needs of the human body.

real need: A term that is commonly but loosely used, sometimes to mean ‘true’ need but sometimes ‘substantive’ need.

relational need: Used with reference to human beings’ needs for human contact, interaction, belonging and/or love.

relative need: Most often used to denote the opposite of ‘absolute’ need. The term refers to needs that are not fixed, but which are determined in relation to the climatic, socio-economic and cultural conditions in which the human subject lives. The things required to satisfy ‘intermediate’ needs are by definition relative. When relative need is unmet we speak of relative poverty or relative deprivation.

social need: A term that is commonly but loosely used as a way of distinguishing between the needs that pertain strictly to individuals and needs that are a matter of social concern: a distinction which in practice – as Titmuss observed – is hard to sustain. But the term can also be used to refer to cultural needs.

spiritual need: A term that may have either religious or secular connotations. In a religious context it refers to a need for support in the observation of particular rituals or practices and in the sustenance of belief. In a secular context, it refers to the need to realise the ‘spiritual’ essence of one’s humanity (which does not necessarily equate with the ‘material species’ essence proposed by Marx).

subjective need: A term most often used to denote the opposite of ‘objective’ need and which refers to the needs people think, believe or feel they have, whether they be ‘true’ or ‘false’. Subjective need, though it is founded on individual experience, is assumed by classical economists, for example, to be objectively observable through the preferences people exercise.

substantive need: A term that addresses the substance rather than the process of needing. It is generally used to signify actually existing or ‘real’ need and to capture the sense in which the needs referred to are not merely abstract or theoretical in nature.

technical need: Need that is technically created, through the invention of some new or more effective form of good. The term is most commonly used in the healthcare context to refer to forms of medical intervention that can relieve conditions not previously treatable.

thick need: This term has been accorded particular significance for the purposes of this book and is used to refer to needs that are optimally defined and that include the things that may be necessary for a person truly to flourish and to share a good life.

thin need: This term has been accorded particular significance for the purposes of this book and is used to refer to needs that are minimally defined but which include the things that are necessary for a person, with dignity, to achieve pleasure and avoid pain.

true need: Opposite of ‘false’ need. But what is true, of course, depends on one’s point of view, so the term may be used equally to apply, for example, to ‘objective’ or ‘subjective’ need.

universal need: A term accorded a very particular meaning in this book and which refers to need that is ‘thickly’ conceived but theorised to be inherent to the human subject. For policy purposes, people’s needs here stem from their humanity and what is required for human fulfilment. They are defined or negotiated by and through the way people depend upon and participate with one another. Confusingly, perhaps, it can sometimes also be used as a synonym for ‘basic’ need, not quite in the sense referred to earlier, but as a way of referring to the elemental needs that every human being has.