ABSTRACT
The argument so far shows that what counts as a need will depend largely on one’s
general moral position. This is not because there is no common element in the various
uses of the concept of need, but because the common element, which is roughly the
notion of something necessary for the efficient achievement of some goal, is so abstract that nothing is ruled out by it, and nothing is necessarily included: anything at all can, so
far as the logic of the concept goes, be an object of need, and nothing has to be.
