The overshadowing of needs
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Abstract
Part of my purpose in this paper is analytical, to trace out a series of logical features of the concept of need and the way it contrasts with that of preference. My central purpose is more substantive – to bring out what is at stake in this shift from the language of needs to the language of preferences in the characterisation of sustainability. I will argue that the original Brundtland formulation of the concept of sustainability in terms of needs has both theoretical and practical virtues which disappear in the shift to the language of preferences. A needs-based approach is more alive to the plurality of different constituents of well-being, and the limits to the substitutability between different kinds of goods that current generation must pass on to future generations if human welfare is to be maintained. It better captures the nature and seriousness of the ethical obligations that are owed both to the poor in current generations and to future generations. Lastly, it provides a more adequate starting point for the acknowledgement of forms of human dependence and vulnerability that informs basic concerns with sustainability.
(Published as O'Neill, John (2010). The overshadowing of needs. En F. Rauschmayer, I. Omann & J. Frühman (Eds.), Sustainable development. Capabilities, needs and wellbeing (pp.25-42). Londres: Routledge. Trans. Julieta Elgarte. Reproduced with permission of Taylor & Francis Group.)
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