ABSTRACT
As it turns out, this second part of the book has proceeded too quickly. It has done so by starting with the propositions that there are genetically rooted human universals, and perhaps even one overriding, universal interest. To give the mainstreams of human sciences justice, neither of these propositions should be made at the outset. The human sciences are not in full agreement that there exist universal human interests, aside from the most basic physical needs. To examine differences, misconceptions, and similarities on this matter, the following two extensive sectors examine how the three sciences understand it. Are we blank slates on which society and culture does all the writing? If we are not blank slates, what is prepared genetically on the slates, and how? Here we should note the distinction between needs and drives. Strictly speaking, people may have needs without drives (e.g. when they need medicine or dietary supplements without having a drive for taking these substances). Reversely, they may have a drive without a need (e.g. the drive, however strong, towards having sex is not a need in any essential sense: they would not, as individuals, die without it). In various social contexts, the relation between needs and drive becomes more complicated. As a rule, it is more appropriate to use the term of drives (nonessential for the survival of the individual) than of needs, when referring to socially and culturally based motivations.
