Marx's Theory Of Need

"Need"is a category with significance, the progression of which is related with thedevelopment of human and society. Attention to human need paid by philosophy hasexisted since ancient times, and most scholars, no matter in China or the West, tend tocomprehend need on the side of human nature rather than need itself. Recently, theproblem of need get much more attention paid by various disciplines which try to defineit. However, need itself is an extrimly complicated issue, since it refers to human nature,activity, progression and social developemt, etc which make it hard to be expressed in aconcrete conception, especially cannot be defined easily in the term of abstract humanity.Being different from previous economists and starting from the real and concrete human,Marx analyses and elucidates, based on the empirical facts of political economics, thegeneration, progression, and meet of need through examining the relation between needand concepts of production, labour as well as social relationship. He also comprehendshuman need on the term of produciton relations and historical development. Beginningfrom practice view, Marx analyses human need on the side of capital, captical criticism,and social criticism, and especially opposes the abstrac as well as simple comprehensionof human.Marx devotes his lifetime attention to the issue of need, since he concerns humansurvival, liberation and progression in real society which make him cannot stray fromthe studies of human need. Marx founds his examination of need in social history on thecriticism and sublation of western philosophy and economics which upgrade thecategory of need to the philosophic level. Marx's theory of need generally experiencesfour stages as follows: initial projection in the period of Rhein Zeitung andDeutsch-Franz sische Jahrbiicher, initial formation in the period of 1844 Economicand Philosophical Manuscripts, basic formation in the period of The German Ideology,as well as the richness and perfection in the period of Das Kapital and EconomicManuscripts. These four periods are the four stages of the formation and development ofMarx's idea as a whole. So the issue of need is a significant clue, and it also occupies an important place in Marx's thoughts progression.Subject of need in Marx's comprehension is people existing in social history, andneed is bound to be real rather than abstract and mystical. People cannot exist alonewithout society, and they are rather socialized beings, the practices of which are certainto unite as the social relationship that forming the need of it. Thus Marx's conception ofneed could be defined as follow: need is the one of human existence and development,object and practice, as well as social relationsihp. Not only do these three aspects goforward one by one, but also exist simultaneously. None is dispensable and they unite inthe subject of huamn. Accordingly, the category of human need the unity of categories ofvalue, practice, and relation.Human need never remains at the same level, and rather has infinite development.It will develop and be riched with the progression of productivity, the foundation ofwhich is the infinite development of social practice. Meet of the first need will arise anew one which will be met through the new practice, so it is a infinite progressingprocess. Therefor it could be said that need can only be met relatively. Namely needcould be met in a determined period, however, it can never be met in the generaldeveloping course. Samely, human practice develops infinitely in the following circlecourse, need-satisfaction-a new need-new satisfaction. Starting from human practice,need is the same with practice that they have sociality and historical significance, if wecomprehend the generation, development and satisfaction of need in the historicaldimension of society. With the highly developing of productivity, gradually expandingof practice, and increasingly progressing of social civilization, need will also become aninfinitely developing and increasingly enriching system which can be divided intodifferent cases according to different terms and standards. On the side of generationreason of need, it could be divided into natural and social need. According to the objectand objectification activity, need can be divided into material and spiritual need. In theterm of economics, need is going to be divided into necessary need and luxurious need.Concerning to the subject of need, it could be divided into needs of workers andcapitalists. As to the standards of need level, it can be divided into survival need,enjoyment need and developmental need.History cannot be without human, and human need either. Human need, which canbe analyzed and streamlined farther by inspecting the relation of need and production,labour as well as social relationship, always connects with all human activities. First we will examin the relation between human need and production. Need is dialectical unitywith production: need determines production and is also determined by production; needis the starting point for production in concept, and production is the practical startingpoint for need; Need drives production, and develops with the development ofproduction. While production produces and decides materials and ways that meet need.To a certain extent, need also determins the object, scale and direction, etc, of production.The dialectical unity of need and production drive human history development.Production means , besides material production, human self production, socialrelationship production and spiritual production, all of which are for and have beenserving for human needs. Therefore the whole production of human society can beunderstood only when we consider it on the side of human existence, human real andall-round need. Also only when we inspect all-round production of human society canhuman need be understood.Second, relation between need and labour should be considered, which cannot bediscussed separately in history. Human have to work, which not only can meet humanneed but also creat new need that is the basic reason why human need to work further, inorder to meet human survial need. Need and labour not only constitute the starting pointof history but also drive historical development concurrently. Thus need and labourrestrict each other, and interact as both premise. Besides, they have close relation withthe formation and progression of Marx's historical materialism, political economics aswell as communist theory, and play a key part in it.Last, relation between need and social relationship will be concerned. On the oneside, need drives social relationship of people, and human tend to contact with others inthe determined stage of productivity and need progression; on the other side, socialrelation also determines production and need. Social relation is initially geneticconnection as well as household connection, and later develops specialization andexchange relation. Besides, in the society of commodity eeconomy, there are anothersignificant relation, namely, monetary relation and captical relation. Specialization is thepremise of exchange, premise of currency, and currency is the premise of capital. And,specialization, exchange, currency and capital are the social relationship of people, theproduction and need of which have close relation and meet human need in different wayand stage.Because research needs to be based on a problem, we can't study requirement without its social and historical background. So, if you want to understand thecontemporary reality of human need, you mustn't leave the background of thecontemporary society. The world today is still controlled by the logic of capital. Thefigure of international capital is almost over every corner of the world. Because thelogic of contemporary society is still controlled by the capital, but also deepened.There is no country can avoid the logic of capital at present. Marx's theory of need isstill of great significance in the contemporary world. Under the control of the logic ofcapital, people have many needs that are not free. On the one hand, consumer need iscontroled by the logic of production, on the other hand, political need is controled bythe modern media manipulation. But do not have to be overly pessimistic. Because ifyou want to develop capital, it is impossible to completely ignore the needs of people.Although the starting point is focused on profit maximization, you have to consider theneeds of the people, determine the direction of capital flows according to people'sneeds and the trend of production development. However we can not put hopes in thecapital of their own development, there must be a awareness of resistance. Resistanceof the theory seems to be the most weakest, but as long as we put this theory into thedepth of every human heart, it might be the most powerful. So, Marx is not only theleadership of the practice of workers and revolutionaries, but also a great ideologicalhero. His greatness lies in that it gives us a deep-rooted theory, a spirit, a faith, also ahope.