I have tried to show how needs can provide a link between what people value and what they ought to
value, elevating the empirical claim of the previous chapter that people find meaning in love, work,
and play to the normative claim that these realms are justified sources of meaning. People have deep
biological and psychological needs that generate goals whose pursuit and accomplishment are
inherently meaningful. Psychological evidence supports the existence of fundamental human needs for
relatedness, competence, and autonomy. The successful pursuit of love, work, and play is the best
available means for satisfying these needs, so they both are and ought to be the realms that offer
valuable and meaningful lives. Understanding the neural basis of psychological needs such as
relatedness, competence, and autonomy enables us to see how psychological needs are biological
needs.