In economics, demand is the utility for a good or service of an economic agent, relative to his/her income. (Note: This distinguishes "demand" from "quantity demanded", where demand is a listing or graphing of quantity demanded at each possible price. In contrast to demand, quantity demanded is the exact quantity demanded at a certain price. Changing the actual price will change the quantity demanded, but it will not change the demand, because demand is a listing of quantities that would be bought at various prices, not just the actual price.)

Demand is a buyer's willingness and ability to pay a price for a specific quantity of a good or service. Demand refers to how much (quantity) of a product or service is desired by buyers at various prices. The quantity demanded is the amount of a product people are willing or able to buy at a certain price; the relationship between price and quantity demanded is known as the demand. (see also supply and demand). The term demand signifies the ability or the willingness to buy a particular commodity at a given point of time, ceteris paribus. Utility preferences and choices underlying demand can be represented as functions of cost, benefit, odds and other variables.

In the theory of Jacques Lacan, demand (French: demande) represents the way instinctive desires are inevitably alienated through the effects of language on the human condition. The concept of demand was developed by Lacan in parallel to those of need and desire to account for the role of speech on human aspirations. Demand forms part of Lacan's battle against the approach to language acquisition favored by ego psychology, and makes use of Kojeve's theory of desire. Demand is not a Freudian concept.

Language acquisition

For Lacan, demand is the result of language acquisition on physical needs - the individual's wants are automatically filtered through the alien system of external signifiers.

Where traditionally psychoanalysis had recognised that learning to speak was a major step in the ego's acquisition of power over the world, and celebrated its capacity for increasing instinctual control, Lacan by contrast stressed the more sinister side of man's early submergence in language.

Demand may refer to:

Economics

Other uses

See also

Hoist (stylized as (Hoist)) is the fifth official studio album by the American rock band Phish, released on March 29, 1994, by Elektra Records. At the time of its release, Hoist was Phish's best selling album to date, peaking at #34 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

The band suggested a few ideas for the album's title before finally settling on Hoist; one of the alternative suggestions was Hung Like a Horse. The band ruled this out, but decided to keep the visual joke intact for the album's cover. The horse is also a reference to "The Horse," the only song not visually depicted on the cover of Rift, the band's previous album.

Hoist features guest appearances from Alison Krauss, Béla Fleck and a host of other musicians, as well as actor Jonathan Frakes on trombone. With its jazz, blues, soul and bluegrass influences, the album is marked by more stripped-down, straightforward songwriting and pop-friendly hooks, a somewhat new approach for Phish.

However, the album's final track, "Demand", segues into an extended instrumental excerpt from the April 21, 1993, live performance of the song "Split Open and Melt", followed by the first verse and refrain of the Hebrew song "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold)."