Man lives in a difficult world. Every day he encounters directly or finds out through various sources about tragedies, terrorist attacks, catastrophes, killings, thefts, wars and other negative manifestations. All these shocks make society forget about higher values. Trust is undermined, parents and teachers are no longer the authority for the younger generation, and their place is taken by the media. The personal dignity of a person is called into question, traditions are forgotten. All this is provoked by the gradual destruction of the idea of values. However, this process must be stopped. To do this, one should delve into the philosophical theory of values.
Occurrence
In the history of philosophy, the first who began to develop this problem was Aristotle. According to him, the main concept, thanks to which in our minds there are ideas that “is desirable” and “should”, is “good”. How does he decrypt it? In Aristotle’s work “Big Ethics” it is interpreted as either that which is considered the best for every being, or that which does other things related to it, that is, the very idea of good.
His pupil Plato went a little further and highlighted the existence of two spheres of being: natural reality and ideal or supernatural, where there are only ideas that only reason can know.
These two spheres of being, according to the concept of Plato, are interconnected precisely by good. Subsequently, the idea of him, as well as how to achieve it in the world of real things, grew into a whole direction, giving the basis of the European tradition of understanding values.
Philosophical axiology, which was a branch of science, was formed much later than society faced with the problem of values.
The meaning of the term
As mentioned above, the theory of values in philosophy is called axiology. Its interpretation is worth starting with the consideration of the word itself. The two components of this term are translated from Greek as "value" and "teaching." This theory is aimed at determining the qualities and properties of objects, processes or phenomena that lead to the satisfaction of our needs, requests and desires.
One of the founders
They became Rudolph Hermann Lotze. He changed the doctrine that existed before him about the nature of values, using for this category. Lotze chose “meaning” as the main one. This gave an interesting result. That is, everything that matters to a person is important in the social or personal plan and is a value. Scientists who developed a similar axiological theory were able to expand the list of categories used by Lotze. It included: “choice”, “desirable”, “due”, “rating”, “success”, “price”, “better”, “worse”, etc.
Two meanings of values
The main task of value theory is to determine their nature. Today in philosophy, various opinions were presented about the ability of a thing, phenomenon or process to satisfy human needs and desires.
The most important still remain questions about two meanings of values: objective and subjective. The first implies that beauty, noble, honest exist only on their own.
The second meaning implies that benefits are formed through tastes, as well as individual psychological preferences.
Ontological axiology is the objectivity of values. So thought: Lotze, Cohen, Rickert. To the opposite opinion came: Adler, Spengler, Sorokin.
The modern theory of values has a subjective-objective nature, where man himself creates them. As a result of this, he transforms the world emotionally and psychologically. The subject begins to represent axiological significance if the subject pays attention to it, gives priority. In order to become a value, there is no need to know what a phenomenon or process is in itself; for a person, only its value and usefulness are important.
Types of values
In axiology (value theory) there are quite a lot of them. They are divided into aesthetic and ethical, material and spiritual, social and political. A simplified classification groups them according to the principle of “higher” and “lower”.
It is a mistake to believe that a person can do with only one of the types of values.
The spiritual ones undoubtedly develop it, make it more enlightened, but the biological and vital ones ensure the normal functioning of the body.
The theory of values also separates them according to such a feature as the number of carriers. Here, individual, collective and universal. The latter include: good, freedom, truth, truth, creativity, faith, hope, love. Individual values include: life, well-being, health, happiness. Collective include: patriotism, independence, dignity, peace.
Ideals
In our life, values are present, as a rule, in the form of ideals. They are something imaginary, unreal, desirable. In the form of ideals, one can observe such characteristics of values as the expectation of what we want, of hope. They are present in the person with all satisfied needs.
Ideals also serve as a kind of guidance on the spiritual and social plan, activating human activities, the purpose of which is to approach a better future.
Valuable design of their actions on that very expected day, the study of the methods and features of building plans is one of the main tasks of axiology.
Connection with the past
The function of values is not only the creation of plans. In addition, they can exist in the role of generally accepted norms and cultural traditions, with the help of which the present generation communicates with the heritage of the past. Such a function is especially important in the upbringing of patriotism, the awareness of family responsibilities on their moral side.
It is the idea of values that corrects and directs the behavior of people, taking into account modern realities. Determining their further actions, studying and evaluating political strategies, each citizen develops his own action plan, as well as his attitude to the authorities and those around him.
Interpretation
Paul Ferdinand Linke introduced something new in axiology. He believed that the good is subject to interpretation. Presenting it as an interpretation, the philosopher proved that it is thanks to him that a person chooses one thing from among many or acts according to this scenario, and not according to another. The problem of interpreting values, selecting the best, adapting value ideas to individual thoughts and judgments is a very difficult and complex intellectual-volitional process. It is fraught with many internal contradictions.
Philosophers, who are followers of the theory of axiology, argue that values are not checked by the logic of rational knowledge and manifest themselves, as a rule, in an individual understanding of good and evil, love and hate, sympathy and antipathy, friendship and enmity. Creating his own world, a person begins to depend on it.
It is important to remember that truth, beauty and goodness are those goods that a person wants to achieve for their own sake. However, they manifest themselves, transforming into art, religion, science, law. This regulates the content of these values. They return to the person as certain norms and rules of behavior.
