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Values Discussion
In A Question of Values: Six Ways We Make Personal Choices That Shape Our Lives, the author ponders the question of whether our values are freely chosen or inherent in whom we are based on our genetic makeup. Further, the author acknowledges that it is a difficult and complicated subject but notes that, “there is a good deal of evidence that human beings are not primarily driven by genetically determined instincts but are rather free to make their own choices.” (7) I agree with the author on this point and further agree when he makes the point that values are, “. . . personal evaluations and beliefs that propel us to action, to a particular kind of behavior and life.” (7) So, how do humans come to make choices that inform their behavior? According the to author, the way we come to “know” things also informs the architecture of our values and that there are four ways we come to “know” something: sense experience, deductive logic, emotion, and intuition. In addition to these basic mental modes (10) the author also contends that we use two other “synthetic mental modes” (10) that combine the basic modes in a variety of ways. Specifically the author notes authority and science as the synthetic modes.
My appreciation and agreement with the author’s assessment of how we create our own values is informed by the internship I had last summer working with the Greater Good Science Center in Berkeley, California. Over the course of six weeks I was able to work with teachers from across the country as they studied different ways to regulate their emotions to improve their practice in the classroom. While I did not know it at the time, I can say without a doubt that all four mental modes were explored as a way to better know and understand the values the teachers promoted as important for their daily practice in the classroom. In addition, the synthetic mental modes of authority and science also came into play.
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