NEEDS-BASED ETHICS (Version III | Part I — Foundations)

Abstract Needs-Based Ethics (NBE) is proposed as an ethical framework with civic applications for examining human needs, harm, power and responsibility under conditions of moral and cultural plurality. It seeks to identify ethically significant concerns without requiring agreement upon a comprehensive conception of the good life, while distinguishing genuine needs from the preferences, expressions and satisfiers through which people pursue legitimate ways of living. Part I develops the framework’s conceptual and normative foundations through engagement with established theories of human needs, capabilities, autonomy, care, harm and power. It presents an analytical grammar, a nine-stage process for ethical action, a three-layer harm taxonomy comprising twenty-four contextual and experiential categories, eleven domains and eleven assessment dimensions, and an account of nine modes of power and differentiated responsibility. Central distinctions separate the recognition of harm from causal explanation and the allocation of responsibility, while distinguishing ethical need from practical feasibility, legitimate strategy and the transformation of constraints. NBE’s ten ethical Charter principles articulate constraints upon ethical inquiry and action, including the framework’s own potential exercise of authority, with implications for civic coexistence. The framework also recognises the moral significance of sentient animals and ecological communities, while acknowledging unresolved questions concerning competing claims. NBE is presented as an integrative and contestable research programme, not a validated decision procedure or substitute for rights, legitimate institutions or personal autonomy. Subsequent Parts will address epistemology, legitimate conflict and routing, and responsible institutional and AI-supported implementation.