Dialogue

Table of Contents - 1988 - Volume 27, Issue 03  

Critical Notices/Etudes critiques

Michalos' Comments on Meeting Needs Disposed of*

David Braybrookea1

a1 Dalhousie University

Can x need y without our being in a position to conceptualize y? Nothing, given ten seconds thought, is easier to show. Every man, woman, and child from the beginning of the human race needed Vitamin C as one ingredient in the minimum provisions for their food. It was only in this century, however, that people arrived at the concept of Vitamin C and became able to assert the need for it. On the record, we may expect more such discoveries.

Footnotes

* My colleague Richmond Campbell has helpfully advised me about several features of this rejoinder.