Abraham Maslow: A Theory Of Human Motivation In Peace And War

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Abraham Maslow wrote a paper in 1943 entitled A Theory of Human Motivation, where he introduced a hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy consists of five tiers, the bottom being physiological or, basic human needs, ie: water, food, sleep. The second is safety, and the third love and belonging. The last two are esteem and at the top, self actualization. The theory states that you must fulfill the bottom needs first, before being able to move onto the next tier. Therefore, you cannot have love and being without safety and so forth. In order to understand the societies discussed in Peace a World History, by Antony Adolf and their motivation behind peace and war, it is important to first understand the hierarchy of needs. Moreover, the more complex …show more content…
The common trend is the motivation behind each society’s actions. The motive consistently steams from the demand of fulfilling Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, ensuring ones primitive needs are met first. This can be seen through the development of agriculture, irrigation, trade and networking with neighbouring states. As the economy of the states blossomed and became complex systems, the way in which peace was upheld developed as well. For the Ancient East, working with ones neighbours was a necessity for survival due to many geographical restrictions. As well as fulfilling physiological needs, safety was sought with the implementation of soldiers and armies. As states needs became more complex, so did the ability to maintain peace, and greater precaution were taken to ensure peace. In several of the societies achieving individual piece was as important as social peace, but pursued a different need of Maslow’s hierarchy; that being, esteem and self-actualization, which could only follow after meeting the first three tiers. The need for love and belonging can be found throughout history of peace as well, with state nationalism and the unwillingness to loss family members. The security of one’s primitive needs allowed states to remain at peace longer than, but only as long as they remained simplistic. Once states began to develop different needs were required, that were not as easy to obtain as physiological needs, thus developing a more complex society. A complex society, in which peace was not as easily maintained because these needs were harder to

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