Needs - a lack or need for something necessary for the normal life of a person, social group and society as a whole. They are an internal stimulus to activity.
A person, being a representative of the animal world, has physiological needs, the satisfaction of which is necessary to maintain safety, metabolism, etc.
Identification of spiritual needs
The spiritual needs of a person are the desire to know the world around and their place in it, self-realization, self-improvement, self-knowledge.
This is a type of needs, due to the inner world of a person, his desire for self-deepening, concentration on what is not related to social and physiological needs. His satisfaction is facilitated by the study of culture, art, religion, the purpose of which is to understand the highest meaning of existence.
Pyramid of needs
In general, the needs of people are often represented in the form of a pyramid. Physiological are at its base, and at the top are the spiritual needs of man. These include: self-expression (in sports, religion, science, art, etc.), communication (rights, duties, etc.), self-affirmation (recognition, respect, power, etc.).
This article will take a closer look at this type of human need.
Different classifications of needs
The presence of many different requests is explained by the complexity of human nature, the variety of social and natural conditions in which people exist.
It is difficult to identify sustainable groups by which needs are classified, but this does not stop researchers. Different authors offer their reasons and classification motives. For example, K. Obukhovsky, a Polish psychologist, noted that there are currently 120 of them.
Basic needs
Let us dwell on the classification of basic needs, rather generalized and widespread. Basic needs are those needs that are common to all people. These include: material, biological, spiritual and social. The important thing is that they are arranged in a hierarchical order. In order for spiritual and intellectual needs to appear, it is necessary that physiological systems function in our body, that is, material and biological ones are satisfied. But not all authors absolutize this dependence.
Certainly, a sequence of satisfying needs exists, but one cannot think that it is absolutely the same for all individuals. There are cases when the need for spiritual development and creativity turned out to be dominant not after other needs (biological, recognition, security, etc.) were met, but when even the basic requirements for housing, food and security were not yet satisfied.
Any of the above needs is focused on a particular subject, encourages us to take possession of it.
Biological needs require the possession of vital resources, material - material means necessary to satisfy all needs, social - forms of communication and communication with other people. Man’s spiritual needs require mastery of spirituality.
What is spirituality? Consciousness and spirituality are monotonous concepts. However, not every consciousness is spiritual. For example, a worker performing some operations on the assembly line of a factory does it consciously, competently. However, these actions are unspiritual, technological. An alcoholic deliberately chooses alcohol and snacks. Nevertheless, when drinking alcohol, he does not see a reasonable border, his enslavement by passion does not allow him to rise higher, he falls into the state of an animal. The main reason for this fall is lack of spirituality.
Spiritual abilities and needs
The spiritual abilities that a person possesses lead to the emergence of spiritual needs. In the child in the first years of life, one can observe their glimpses - anger, fear, pleasure. In young and adulthood, if the conditions are favorable, spiritual development becomes thinner, wider, improved, and in the period of old age it stops at the reached height and after a while, as the body weakens, it weakens more and more. The spiritual needs of man are created by his spiritual life, corresponding to the state, development, influence of the external environment and the material organism. First of all, the simplest, coarsest, first of all meet the desire to satisfy the most powerful material needs, and later appear more complex and subtle.
Human values
Over a long period of history, mankind has determined which spiritual needs are leading. They are called differently by universal or higher values, because they are important for most people. These include, for example, the categories of happiness, love, friendship, that is, physical and spiritual intimacy with a loved one, a happy family life, love for children, the presence of loyal friends. This series can be supplemented with mental and physical health, the possibility of creative expression, enjoyment of the beauties of art and nature, interesting work and active active life in general. Free will, that is, independence in actions and deeds, as well as self-confidence, that is, independence from internal contradictions, also apply to spiritual needs.
Transcendence
Nikolai Mikhailovich Berezhnoy introduces the concept of transcendence in his work "Man and His Needs" to explain spirituality. The voluminous and multifaceted meaning of this concept is widely disclosed in the philosophical works of Immanuel Kant. But we are now interested in transcendence only in relation to spirituality. In this sense, it represents going beyond the boundaries of a person’s natural everyday life, beyond the boundaries of his understanding of the world. Transcending means overcoming the framework of your empirical being, yourself, wanting to become higher, striving for more freedom.
Spirituality is the transcendence of consciousness beyond the boundaries of everyday life to a religious feeling, a philosophical comprehensive comprehension of the world, an aesthetic world experience. That is, this desire to overcome their consciousness, achieve higher goals, follow social and personal ideals, higher values, as well as self-knowledge. This is also expressed in the desire to contemplate nature, to the beautiful, in interest in classical works of art and literature. Culture is a substance of spirituality, containing the entire spiritual development of mankind, its quintessence.
Hardness of mind
The concept of “firmness of spirit” is applied to a person who has consistently carried out in his life a once chosen ideal, which has turned the achievement of this goal into the meaning of his whole existence. A firm-minded person does not yield to difficulties, does not panic in difficult life situations, does not change his beliefs for money or for market reasons. He behaves according to the criteria of justice, honor and truth. The education of spirituality, firmness of spirit is the most noble task for young people, since this is the surest way to understanding and gaining the meaning of life, overcoming failures and life's adversities.
Spirituality is the most valuable wealth of a person that cannot be borrowed or bought, it can only be created with your own efforts. Only a spiritually rich person is capable of lasting love, selfless friendship. The characteristic of spirituality is not only a sphere of consciousness, since it can be realized in an individual only when he has strong-willed qualities, the ability to direct vitality in a specific direction. Therefore, a soulless person is, first of all, spineless, limp. Although it should be clarified that volitional qualities alone are not akin to spirituality.
Spirituality Is Not Just Consciousness
Summarizing the foregoing, we note that spirituality is not just consciousness, it is a function of the active essence of the individual. A person, accumulating knowledge about the external world and himself, enriches his consciousness with internal energy, and energy seeks expression in the spirit, this is how self-knowledge takes place.
This desire to acquire and enrich spirituality, to master the inner spiritual world of a person, is also called spiritual needs. The arsenal of spirituality is very diverse. This is literature in human life, art, knowledge about people, society and the world. As well as music, philosophy, art. Here we add the role of religion in human life.
Introduction to spiritual culture, the so-called spiritual consumption, is a process of satisfying spiritual needs.
Types of Spiritual Needs
The most important spiritual need is the pursuit of knowledge, including external and self-knowledge. This was noted by philosophers of various eras. Aristotle wrote that we all naturally seek knowledge. Michel de Montel, a French thinker who lived in the sixteenth century, argued that the pursuit of knowledge is the most natural of all others. Aesthetic need is also a very important spiritual need. Its components: the desire to see harmony in people and nature, to master the world according to the laws of beauty. This also includes literature in human life, painting, music, poetry, the desire to improve human relationships. Another spiritual need is communication. This includes friendship, love, camaraderie, attention to each other, psychological and moral support, empathy, sympathy, joint creativity and exchange of ideas.
Conclusion
Needs are the driving force and foundation of human behavior, its purpose and motivation. Values are objects of the outside world that serve the satisfaction of human needs. Spiritual consumption is a process in which the satisfaction of spiritual needs, the development of personality. The most important of them are the need for knowledge, communication, as well as aesthetic.
Spiritual values, unlike material ones, do not disappear in the process of consumption, but remain part of the spiritual world, enrich it. Understanding, their perception is subjective, this is due to the unique individual experience of a particular person. Therefore, spiritual consumption is often a creative process, the result of which is a change in a person’s personal qualities and personal development.
The formation of spiritual values, their choice for consumption is determined largely by the level of culture of the individual, his education. This is a fairly lengthy process. The higher the general cultural and educational level, the higher the spiritual needs of a person, the requirements for the quality of spiritual values.