The Ethical Basis for Arranging the Hierarchy of Needs in Modern Psychology: Positivism and the Normative View

Abstract

This research aims to discuss the relationship of the hierarchy of needs in modern psychology with the system of ethics that governs the process of arranging human needs. It contained an introduction and five chapters. First, the theory of the hierarchy of human needs in human psychology. Second, the deficiencies in arranging the hierarchy of human needs in the positive moral system. Third, a comparative view of the hierarchy of arranging human needs in the ethical system. Fourth, the importance of moral vision in arranging the hierarchy of needs. Fifth, it revealed the relationship between ethics and psychology. The research concluded that Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of needs was developed on a cognitive, ethical and positivist basis, which is controlled by the Western vision of life and man. It believed that man is motivated by a group of instinctive motives in its foundation. Whereas, studies and research revealed the imbalance of this cognitive and ethical vision, and that this hierarchy does not reflect the essence and nature of the human personality. Human history has shown that human movements do not always stem from instincts, but a person can sacrifice many of them in order to achieve lofty principles and high moral and aesthetic values, just as the psychological overlap with morals. The more a person rises morally, the higher he rises psychologically.