Priorities

Maslow

Issues addressed.

Priority doesn't necessarily mean urgent (do it first); see project-management qv.

Further reading.

• I'm not strictly adhering to Maslow's layers; just the underlying principle that people have multiple needs and desires, and can assign differing priorities to each one. Individuals differ in the priorities they assign to the various needs: ethics, beliefs, values.
• Needs and wants. Food vs. art. Some 'needs' (eg, cognitive) are more like optional personal interests. Failure to satisfy the lowest-level (physiological) needs results in physical consequences. Failure to satisfy other ‘deficiency needs’ (eg, esteem, friendship and love, security) results in sadness, anxiety and tension (ie, emotions). The nature of such consequences probably influences goal prioritisation and motivation.
• Self vs. others (social, self-sacrifice of $ and even life for children and maybe others) cf. time-scope, thing-scope, familiarity-bias.
• Priorities (including those motivated by instinct bestowed by evolution) tend to be self-centred on the individual. Even community-focused actions are presented as being motivated by self-interest. Since evolution’s goal is survival of the species rather than the individual, can we rely on individuals being motivated to do what’s best for the species as a whole (now and future)?
• Distinguish between what priorities usually are (derived from instinct) and what they need to become (given problems that evolution has not equipped us for). If the self-centred view is correct, we need to derive personal pleasure (emotion qv) (or some other personal reward) from things that benefit future/remote others (or animals or inanimate). (Refer to philosophy that all motivation is for self-interest; there is no genuine altruism.)
• Maslow's hierarchy is often referred to as 'Maslow's Pyramid'. A pyramid is a tomb. Let us not all end up entombed by inappropriate priorities. [too pointed?]
• Maybe not everyone has every priority. Some people may be happy to plateau below the potential summit. [so what?]
• instinct qv prioritises motivation for lower (physiological) goals[BW], but less so for community, art, etc. Motivation for higher goals may require other thinking processes. We can (and should) use rationality to influence our choice of goal.
• Political and social systems can influence individuals’ motivations to pursue specific needs.
• Emotion (compassion): needs that can interfere with a utilitarian optimum.
• time dimension: maximise quality of life now, or save for the future? Urgent vs. important.
• A single problem can have multiple consequences (including side-effects): thing-scope qv. Solutions will usually add additional consequences: no-good-options qv. The range of consequences will involve multiple priorities.
• Independence (personal freedom) vs. interdependence (we-awareness[BW], community-minded thinking). "Nobody can tell me what to do." Extreme case of familiarity-bias? Relationship with insignificance, tiny-impacts (‘I can be independent because everyone else will toe the party line and fix the problem’).

Cateogories

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Relative Priorities

Perhaps a way to interpret the pyramid is that lower levels award us more points than do the levels above. All else being equal, we'd start at the bottom and work our way progressively upwards, because that would be the most efficient way of accruing points. However, if we find a blockage at one level, we can skip it and go to the next level up.

Priorities change over time, including regression. Achievement in one priority may need continual maintenance; eg, continual food. Failure to satisfy a previously-satisfied need will cause us to regress down the pyramid.

As a society, how do we justify spending public money on art, entertainment, space exploration, etc, when some people are starving?

Money

Money is not a fundamental need. It is a proxy or surrogate for other needs. It can be exchanged for some sorts of actual needs (eg, food, aesthetic). For some people, it is also an indicator of prestige/importance, hence esteem.

$ (eg, fines) can be used to convert one priority to another. For example, fining someone for anti-social behaviour (eg, selfish driving, killing protected species) can limit their ability to buy food or other things that are more important to them than being considerate of others.

Satisfaction

When is a priority satisfied? Many seek ever-greater luxury, libido, etc. We need to encourage people to ascend rather spread unnecessarily widely across the lower levels. Re "over-satisfying" some goals: I read one article which thought this happens out of frustration not being able to satisfy the needs on a higher/other level.[BW] Is this a thinking-trap?

While a need isn't fully satisfied, achieving more of it is a good thing. This could lead to the generalisation (intuition qv) that more is always better. After the need is 100% satisfied, that could result in over-eating, greed, etc.

Values

Are values just relative ‘need’ priorities?[BW] Or are they a particular high-level 'need' (eg, ethical), whereas lower-level needs just have 'goals' rather than 'values'?

A value (eg, not stealing) may restrict pursuit of a nominally more important goal (eg, eating).[BW]

Are personal beliefs and values inevitably subjective? Is there any absolute right and wrong (eg, body mutilation)? [It's not for me to say.]