p.11 Broadly speaking, the term need means a state of dissatisfaction provoked by the lack
of something felt as being necessary. Furthermore, it can be said that a need becomes a necessity
when its satisfaction is absolutely indispensable to a given state of affairs... a need
may be born at an instinctive level, almost beyond the control of consciousness... The mechanism by means of which needs become
evident can be studied with the help of the methods used in psychology and economics.
p.12 One of the first things to be noted is that needs provoke real impulses for action
and grow more complex as the single gives way to the plural, the individual to the group, the group to society.
p.13-14 Needs which would appear to be essential in a particular historical moment, in a precise
place and in a definite (or definable) society are no longer so when these circumstances - time, place, culture - change.
p.19 Knowledge, we have said, is the verification of hypotheses, and the verification, an utterly scientific
act whatever the field of interest be
p.20-21 Specialization, for its very nature, prevents man from completing himself... The ills of specialization...
hide the links between the various branches of science. These, in turn, are placed separately in a panorama which
is completely detached from society which in its complexity is one, and should be lived as such by man... human and social
needs cannot be considered in isolation one from the other... but should be thought of as a complex whole
p.21 Concrete action is possible only in so far as it takes into account not only the dynamic lines mentioned
above, but also, and perhaps especially, the tendency to restore an equilibrium whose motivations and goals are rocked in
continual crises.
p.22 it is useful to identify the fundamental needs, and these are... those which cannot be further
reduced. By this we mean that a need is always something complex, and thus should be analyzed
in its component parts, freed of what is accidental in terms of time and space or can be distorted by external influences,
and brought back to its essentialness, a need which cannot be further reduced. This will be the so-called fundamental
need, the examination of which will bring us face to face with the real problem to be dealt with.
p.26 A dynamic model - directed towards the future that is - implies an action or series of actions
which bear some influence on social change. The very fact that the model aims at improving the present
situation means that the changes or reactions themselves may be of variable value and bearing, while, at the same time, not
necessarily overturning or upsetting the institutions.
p.32-33 All plans are the result of the merging of thought and action... it is obvious that this moment
of unification through which such aims can be achieved can be reached only by means of a careful reflection on the goals in
view and the means available.
p.33 The problem of needs touches every aspect of human activity
p.41-42 Research is not limited to producing new knowledge and improving the general picture
as it is already known, but sets out to analyse problems from the theoretical and practical point of view, identify
essences and causes, study their correct position within the picture of the influences and relations, work out methods of
approach and sharpen the instruments which can be adopted when action has to be carried out in order to give concrete solutions.
