What is it that has sustained our species for the last 40 000 – 500 000 years? The simple answer is “Life.” Given that life is necessary, what is it about the Homo sapiens species that sets us apart from all other species? What has driven us to blossom into a species that appreciates truth, beauty, goodness, art, architecture, societies, friendship, love, homes, children, books, accomplishment, fulfillment and satisfaction? What is it that so distinctly sets us apart from all other species?

Three values have not only sustained our species but have urged us to thrive to the point where we now dominate all of the earth, perhaps to our detriment.

Quality of life — While life is fundamental to survival and continued existence, it is the quality of life that makes life worth living and gives life meaning. Quality of life is the primary value, with growth and equality being the subordinate values.

Growth — Growth is a subordinate value that contributes to the primary value, the quality of life. Growth is essential for improving our quality of life. It is self-evident that growth is essential to our existence and personal and societal fulfillment. To be human is to grow! Having children provides us with a very immediate perspective of growth.

Equality — Equality is inherent in the value of life. In a democracy, access to the quality of life is provided when a person not only has an equal right to life, but that person also has an equal right to growth as anyone else. We give equal value to each individual, and we would seek to provide more equitable opportunity to every individual to develop their innate potential, as we would our own.

The validity of these values is self-evident, just as “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal, … endowed … with certain unalienable rights (values) that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

These three values provide the basis for a value based “unified theory of human motivation” due to their irreducible nature, being universal and timeless in nature to all members of our species. (Eponymously, this becomes the Raphael UTHM, or RUTHM.) It is from these values that our needs make themselves known.