AQUINO Journal of Philosophy

This research critically re-examines dominant psychological explanations of human motivation by questioning whether need satisfaction sufficiently accounts for human fulfilment. While Abraham Maslow’s theory of human needs remains influential in explaining motivation and personal growth, it is primarily psychological and individualistic, and therefore limited in addressing fulfilment as an ontological condition of being human. The study employs conceptual analysis, critical reconstruction, and comparative hermeneutics to engage Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in dialogue with the Igbo ontology of personhood, focusing on the concepts of mmadu (person), onwe (selfhood), chi (personal destiny), and communal fulfilment. The analysis reveals a fundamental difference: Maslow interprets human striving as progressive satisfaction of hierarchical needs, whereas Igbo philosophy conceives fulfilment as ontological alignment involving destiny, moral becoming, relational existence, and communal recognition. The research argues that fulfilment transcends psychological satisfaction and is better understood as the realization of one’s being within a moral and communal order. It therefore proposes a shift from a purely need-based framework to an ontological model of fulfilment, offering a culturally grounded reconstruction that broadens contemporary discussions in philosophical anthropology and humanistic psychology.

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