Whither need?

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What do you need?

Don't append any adjectives, adverbs, modifiers or qualifiers to that. None. Just take the word - Need.

Buncha hooey...

Short answer? Nothing. Long answer is also nothing.

You do not need anything. I'll give you a for instance.

You do not need oxygen.

"Hang on Baker. I need oxygen!" you say.

Why?

"Because, ya moron, if I don't have it I'll die."

Nope. You missed the point of the question. You do not need oxygen. When you say "I need oxygen or I'll die" you have modified need. You have qualified it. You have appended modifiers to it. I said do not do this.

"That's just stupid then,"

You are entitled to your opinion. It does not change the fact that you do not need anything.

The concept of need, without some way of defining what you need, is a semantically null statement. It's probably also a mathematically null statement but you are going to have to get someone who can do that kind of math. I can't.

Someone is likely to go off on a tangent here if that hasn't already happened. The tangent is empiricism. Being one of those folks myself, I appreciate the tangent, but that also runs into the word need requiring modifiers.

You don't need anything.

Want is an entirely different matter. You want oxygen. You want water. You want food, shelter, etc. Want does not require modifiers because want is subjective. Need is objective.

Yes, please.

So my real question of the day is: Why are you wants more important than mine? What gives you the right to deny my wants while at the same time fulfilling yours when I would deny you?

I've got an idea. How about you tend your business, I'll tend mine and where they overlap, unless I'm actually causing you harm, you stay out of my wants. I'll gladly do the same to you.