Positive Needs Reducing pain and privation or preventing sickness 

 and physical suffering is but part of our problem. We want positive satisfac- 

 tions and pleasures. As human beings, however, we want more. "Life is more 

 than meat." We want to do a thousand things that are not necessary to us as 

 organisms, but that are necessary for our comfort and satisfaction — and our 

 happiness — as human beings. To be happy man must have a chance to go after 

 what he wants, whether he ever attains it or not. Perhaps that is what is meant 

 by the right to the "pursuit of happiness" — rather than the right to happiness. 



Values^ We cannot compare satisfactions felt by different persons, nor 

 measure degrees of satisfaction that we ourselves feel. Yet we are constantly 

 making choices or decisions in the effort to increase our pleasures. With ex- 

 perience, we learn that some of life's offerings are not worth much to us. But 

 we will go out of our way to see a particular game or exhibit, to hear a particu- 

 lar composition or performer, to take part in a particular meeting or athletic 

 event. Our strivings are for values, and each one has to learn what is of 

 most worth to him. We learn also to consider what is of greatest worth in the 

 long run. 



How Do Our Needs Differ from Those of Other Species? 



Obstacles to Satisfaction Whatever interferes with our efforts to satisfy 

 our wants is itself a cause of dissatisfaction or unhappiness. Being blocked or 

 frustrated arouses anger or sulking or sour temper or resentment. One may 

 come to dislike particular persons or situations that he associates with the 

 obstacle. These unhappy feelings seem to come in addition to the chemical 

 or physical results of any privations or injuries. 



Again, almost any obstacle may act as a challenge. We climb a mountain 

 just for the fun of getting to the top. We jump over a fence instead of going 

 through the gate. We devise obstacle races: clearing a hurdle seems to be 

 more important than merely getting to the other side. Men fight not only 

 for what they must have. They are especially aroused to fighting whatever 

 stands in the way of their purpose. 



Increasing the Range of Needs Human beings remember and imagine 

 more than other species. They are exceptional hunters and prowlers. They 

 pry into hidden corners. They poke their fingers into hornets' nests or their 

 feet into the mud. We say that they are curious. They thus get into new 

 situations with which they are unable to cope. They taste what never had 

 been eaten by human beings before. They pick things to pieces. As human 

 beings, we seem unable to let well enough alone. Prying, exploring, experi- 

 menting, analyzing, often lead to missteps, mistakes, or tragic blunders. But 

 it is only by yielding to this curiosity and experiencing mistakes that man 

 makes progress. 



^See Nos. 2 and 3, pp. 673 and 674. 

 660 



