Value
From the discussion of value, I totally agree with ‘We are not driven by immutable instincts. But we might still be controlled by the influence of genes on our underlying personality or, alternatively, by peer pressure, by the relentless demands of the society in which we happen to live’
In our society, each person has different point of views on some incidents or issues. Each one of us makes a different interpretation. This is because each person has different values. While growing up, people experience various events and learn general norms of life. As stated above, the value is not created by human instincts. By leading my life, I have learnt numerous things and realized many things. Usually, famous celebrities’ biographies influenced me to build a strong value. As I admire those celebrities, I tried to follow what their thoughts. Moreover, publics respect those celebrities’ thoughts and forms a society based on them so that my values are totally influenced by the pressures of society’s creature, books and education.
However, even the influence of genes affects my personality and value; I think that each person has different situations. I believe that people should create their own way to lead their lives. If one’s value is created by social influences, people will not lead their lives in creative ways but follow someone else’s paths. Value indicates what is wrong or right, how to behave in the society, why we have to make decisions. No one controls my life and everyone has different life expectations and abilities to create a unique path for their lives. In this perspective, Is value an indicator of someone’s identity?
5 Responses to 'Value'
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on July 24th, 2014 at 10:50 am
I think you have mentioned one very interesting topic: societal values and personal values. You said that your value are “totally influenced by the pressures of society’s creature, book and education”, which I agree with. Every college student has the same experience, the way we value the GPA and the way we plan our career are all influenced by family, society and the school system, most people value higher level degree more than the lower one. Majority people value certain type of jobs more than others. Environment plays a role in who we become and what we value. However, for some other people, they value what interested them more, I think this is what you have said”create a unique path for their lives.” Here, it is important to understand that society, media and political leaders exert certain pressures on people to conform to values held by the majority. therefore, it is possible that people hold a value that different with the majority. I also encourage these people to keep this “unique”. However, there is my disagreement, I think everyone has the side that different with the majority, but it is not as you said, decide by genes. Wray Herbert has mentioned in his article” Genes and values: The Dopamine Connection”: There are no genes for individualism or for social connection — world views are far too complicated for that — but perhaps there is another way that genes are interacting with the world, with culture, to produce individual variation in this perspective.”
on July 25th, 2014 at 11:46 am
I think this is an interesting perspective and I do agree with you on the topic that a lot of what shapes our values is our experiences and role models who have an influence over us. This is one cause that makes different individual’s values vary from one another. You briefly stated that genes influences your personality and values which I think is another big part of where the root of our values lie. This reminds me of the nature vs. nurture debate in which part of what guides our choices and personality is due to experience and part is due to our genetics. I would love to hear more about how genetics affect personality and value from your perspective. In my opinion, I think they have almost equal influence as experiences do since often our values coincide with our sibilings or parents, people who share our genetic material. When reflecting on my own life, it seems that some of my values stem from something innate that I can’t direct to a certain experience. On page 8 Lewis states, “The proposition that individual human beings are programmed into their values, either by the influence of genes on personality or by social pressures, can neither be proven nor refuted.” He goes on to describe how perspective influences this which I agree with in the case that it could be an influences coming from innate and programmable values as well as shaped through social situations and the environment.
on July 25th, 2014 at 6:06 pm
You have discussed the relationship between instincts and other factors, such as our environment and peers. I agree that different people have different opinions, and people will change based on their experience. Just like what you have said, “While growing up, people experience various events and learn general norms of life.” I can also feel the influence of celebrities on my personality. When I was a child, I always admire Helen Keller, the girl with strong mind and kind heart. Her story impresses me a lot, teaching me to become confident and respect people who are disabled.
However, I question your idea about following social influences. According to your statement, “if one’s value is created by social influences, people will not lead their lives in creative ways but follow someone else’s paths.” Although I agree that every people has the right to choose what kind of person he or she wants to be, the social influence does help us become better. Just as what we mention above, the influence of celebrities can create a positive growing environment for the teenagers. The main value in the society is usually positive one, such as hardworking, respects, confidence and so on. We are living in the society with others; therefore I think it is important for us to follow some basic values in the big environment while we maintain ourselves.
on July 26th, 2014 at 8:10 pm
Thanks for your comments. As you understood, people have been influenced by environmental factors and lead their lives based on the basic values. I also know that people have the basic values that have been created by influences of social phenomenon, such as media, newspaper, school education and peer/parents pressures. In the point, one question is arising that why should people keep values on their mind? It would be a simple question. Some people might say that people keep values for their well-being life or happiness or in order to lead their lives in respecting ways. Then, “Do we take our life to show off to someone?” No, we can find life values in the way which we feel satisfied. We do not have to prove that I am a particular kind of person. All people have distinctive personality and we all have to respect it. If people do not follow the general values, do we ignore the person? If someone does not like to study, do we disrespect them? The values created by general social influences are not right or wrong. Because of social eyes, people pretend to follow the values. Even in the essay, the author stated the general values but in page 18, “The only difference is that it tries to provide an overview of the entire realm of values”. The essay also depicts general meaning of value but I think the value cannot be defined. The pure value is stated in everyone’s mind. The pure value is a thought that everyone has distinctively.
on July 27th, 2014 at 6:40 pm
Hi, dongjoon:
Your idea is really clear and you got many own thoughts. You question is value is an indicator of someone’s identity or not? My answer is YES. Lewis stated, “although the term values is often used loosely, it should be synonymous with personal evaluations and related beliefs, especially personal evaluations and beliefs about the “good”, the “just” and the “beautiful,” (p.7) Every people grow up from different education and environment. Like Lewis mention about the 6 ways to build up the value model. There are still got a lot of other ways influence personal value. People got various perspectives, so value is different in people’s eye. Some people take something for granted but other people disagree with it. The principle can work in this position but it is not mean can work for anytime. Therefore, different personality has different values standard and values standard reflect people ‘s mind. However, who can decide the general values standard? Who can judge which is right which is wrong?