Needs

[kelley]

At 10:12 AM 10/4/00 -0400, JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:
>Surely not all needs are artificial: we need certain minimum dietary 
>requirements; protection from exposure to extremes of heat and cold; and 
>indeed--although the form of these will of course vary--love, attention, 
>and engagement with activities that use and develop our capacities. Marx 
>knew this. See Norman Geras, Marx and Human Nature: Refutation of a 
>Legend; also J. Archbald Petty and (an older book) Vernon Venable on Marx 
>and Human Nature. --jks

Jim Heartfield wrote:


>Well, OK, but I think that Marx's point is that ALL NEEDS are
>artificial.

eh jim?  needs are socially constituted since meeting and satisfying our 
needs is always a social endeavor, even when we're alone--because we work 
from the tools and ideas created by others, even as we modify them.  and, 
in the activities of creating and satisfying needs, we create new needs.

that's from memory.  his definition of praxis as i recall.

kelley