Jean-Paul Sartre on Needs and Desires

The twentieth-century renaissance of the concept of needs requires some explanation. It cannot be accounted for wholly in terms of the rediscovery of the 1844 Manuscripts, although these were certainly an important source. One of the most significant factors was the need to explain the unexpected longevity of capitalism, a function to which the doctrine of true and false needs seemed admirably suited. According to Marxist theory modified in this direction, the predicted crises — economic depression and two world wars — had not brought capitalism’s demise because the inculcation of false needs had created a new basis for its continued existence. But this important role does not in itself explain why the doctrine of needs was seaworthy. Were true and false needs a mere pragmatic device to make good a shortcoming of original Marxist theory, the concept would have lasted hardly a day in the heightened intellectual climate to which it was introduced.