Sated but Thirsty: A Prolegomenon to Multidimensional Measures of Need-Based Justice

Abstract

In attempts to compare different distributions with regards to need, so-called “measures of need-based distributive justice” have emerged in recent years. Each of the proposed measures relies on a single dimension of need that is taken into account. This is shown to be problematic since humans experience different kinds of need that appear to be incommensurable. A strategy to deal with this problem is introduced by using multidimensional measures.

Winter is coming: How laypeople think about different kinds of needs

“…Moreover, the idea of multidimensional poverty indices can be interpreted as representing different kinds of needs (on the relationship between poverty and need, see [44], for multidimensional measurement of need-based justice, see [45,46]). In medical and care contexts there is also use of differentiations between needs (see, e. g., [47][48][49][50]).…”

“…the different kinds of needs or due to other factors in the varying contexts. An exception is [17], who systematically varied the kinds of needs, but did not find any influence of the different kinds in a hypothetical distribution task (prior to this, [45,46] argued for the importance of differentiating kinds of need, originally in the context of measuring need-based distributive justice, but also-on a side-note-extending to empirical research on need-based distributive justice).…”