Scarcity,Sufficiency,and Abundance

Abstract

Hegel and Marx see scarcities as inherent, necessary, and constructive in the good societies each envisions. They see that human beings develop themselves and their culture by having needs, working to satisfy those needs, and in the process creating new needs that require new types of thought and action for their satisfaction. At the same time, since all needs cannot be pursued, human beings must reflect on which needs to try to satisfy; this reflection leads, Hegel and Marx think, to concern not with the material and atomistic, but with cultural and social needs and their satisfaction. While Hegel and Marx differ in their assessment of nineteenth-century European civilization or capitalism, they agree that the pursuit of affluence as a primary goal is misleading and misguided, and they do imply some suggestions for treating contemporary ecological scarcities.