  Philosophers who write about the concept of need are keen to emphasize how needs differ from desires, wants, and preferences: we often want things that we do not need, and equally we may not want what we need because we fail to recognize its importance to us (all of this seems abundantly clear when we observe the eating patterns of many young children). Since, in general, we only have weak reasons to satisfy people’s desires and preferences, this contrast seems important if we want to maintain that meeting claims of need is morally obligatory (see e.g. Miller 2014, 20–22).