metaphysical need

is a weak instinctual need of the human will for certainty (which was formerly the root of religious life).

The metaphysical need is a product of the decay of religious life: of man's inability to satisfy the existential need which gives rise to religion by religious means alone. Metaphysics does not produce religions... for religions are born of a real, if also a destructive, need of the human will. But metaphysical thought is a a product of that search for certainty which derives from an instinctual weakness of the will Instinkt der Schwäche). Metaphysics cannot produce regions... it can only preserve them.' (Ansell-Pearson 2012: 14) . . . . Nietzsche and Modern German Thought Ansell-Pearson, Keith. 2012 . Routledge

metaphysical need, n.Definitions

metaphysical need