Definition
Principles to which a person or community attaches importance and which guide his or her choices, judgments and priorities.
The stated values may conflict: freedom and security, loyalty and justice, tradition and change. Discretion often involves deciding which one should guide a specific situation.
To be retained
- Distinguish Value and Objective
- Observing actual acts
- Recognizing conflicts of values
- Accepting the ethical discussion
Origin of the term and context
Value comes from the Latin valerus, "to be strong, to have price." Philosophy distinguishes values, virtues, norms and goods; traditions do not all prioritize them in the same way.
Why does it matter?
Clarifying its values can support more coherent choices, but values are not scientific facts and their invocation does not exempt us from examining the consequences of action.
- Distinguish Value and Objective
- Observing actual acts
- Recognizing conflicts of values
- Accepting the ethical discussion
How can it be explored or practised?
- Choose five values and then rank them
- Associate each with behaviour
- Identify a contradiction without judging
- Discuss a value conflict with a person concerned
Misconceptions and points of caution
- An abstract value can justify opposing acts.
- The values of a group are not universal by decree.
- Consistency must not become rigid.
Perspectives from different traditions
- Aristotelism: virtues cultivated in action.
- Religions: commandments, stories and models of life.
- Humanism: dignity, autonomy and responsibility without obligatory reference to the divine.
To go further
- After virtue — Alasdair MacIntyre
- Man的s Search for Meeting — Viktor Frankl