The Problem of Human Needs and the Critique of Civilisation

Originally published in 1981, The Problem of Human Needs and the Critique of Civilisation is a sociological and philosophical exploration of how human needs are understood and addressed within the framework of civilization. It belongs to the author’s life-long study of the presuppositions of, and preconditions to, the cycle of empires, including recently, Reading Hobbes Backwards: Leviathan the Papal Monarchy and Islam (2024), and earlier studies of Ancient Egypt, Royal Persons: Patriarchal Monarchy and the Feminine Principle (1990), and of the Assyrian, Babylonian and Islamic empires, Western Republicanism and the Oriental Prince (1992). The book critically examines the historical and theoretical…