Values are a person’s principles or standards of behavior. Their judgment of what is important in life. This article talks about the topic of how if values are freely chosen and are human beings driven by inherited instincts. I do agree with the fact that values can be freely chosen. But, there is a lot of pressure by peers, family members, and other people around you to adhere to a certain set of values. An example would be people who are heavily involved in a religious community. Religion teaches values that you are suppose to live your life by. If one of those values is broken, you have to potential to be ostracized or looked at in a different way by the people you associate with. This creates religion to have a lot of influence on what people do and how they act. I don’t think people are driven by inherited instincts. But I do think that people have the self preservation and sex drive programmed into them by genes. It all depends how people are brought up and how they go about life. For me, I try and be selfless as possible and put others before myself and try and be about the team and not the individual. But there are times when I want it to be about me or put myself before others and I have to combat that feeling. The sex drive is programmed as people were meant to have pleasure and reproduce. It’s a drive that is always there. It’s about how you control the programs that you inherited in your genes with the values that you choose to live your life by.
AAD 250 Winter 2015
Just another University of Oregon Sites site
I agree that values are freely chosen. I also agree that the pressure among peers and family members creates a dramatic impact on our personal values. Your example of a religious community couldn’t be more on point. I come from a small town of about 2,000 people and we have 5 different churches. It’s safe to say that I came from an extremely religious town. I myself am not an atheist, but by no means am I a practicing Christian or Catholic. I got into a little bit of trouble in high school, and I had never felt so judge by that community. But really what I found out is that our personal values are completely different. Just because I have a different life style than they do, doesn’t make me right or them wrong. We find out what our personal values are by what we see, what we do, and who we associate with. I really liked your examples; they were something I personally could relate to.
Inherited instincts are hard to ignore when addressing the subject of human morality, in my opinion. Innately, it seems that personality is derived form genetic qualities, and that this personality, or set of characteristics, guides our decision-making. Surely, social influences have a great impact on our choices, but they are only secondary to our innate values. Lewis suggests, “But we might still be controlled by the influence of genes on our underlying personality” (p. 8). Within some species exists the drive to protect close friends or family members, and I think that this is an intrinsic value that parallels the “family” and “friend” values on our lists. In many psychology classes, I have learned about the principles of “nature vs nurture,” and this directly applies to our subject. It has yet to be proven that one trumps the other in child development, but rather many believe it is a combination of the two. Your argument has many valid points, but I do not think we can rule out this “nature,” or inherited instincts, as a source of human value.
Lewis, H. (1990). A Question of Values: Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices That Shape Our Lives. Axios Press.
I would have to disagree with the statement “that values can be freely chosen”. Through my experiences and knowledge I feel that ones values are based more on who raised you and their values and the values that they bestow upon you. For the most part, our parents or whoever raised us wanted to make sure we grew up into respectful hardworking adults with good values. Growing up I was taught that certain things were right and certain things were wrong. These lessons or values were taught to me at an early age and engraved into how I act and live my life. I do agree with the statement that “Religion teaches values that you are suppose to live your life by.” I think that other than the people who raised us, religion has the most influence on an individual and their values. Especially if the values are taught at an early age. Often the people who raised us also bestow a religion on us and the values of the religion and the values of the parent are the same. The examples and reasoning you used in your post supported your argument well and overall I enjoyed reading your post.
I feel your posting is really interesting and providing me some kinds of new perspectives to think about values. You mentioned the example of religion. Actually, the author Lewis also mentioned this example in the reading. Among the six modes that he introduced, he used the example of Christian to support the mode of authority that is a major synthetic mental mode. You said you do not think people are driven by inherited instincts but I have different opinion with you. I believe that human is driven by inherited instincts to a great extent. Although our postnatal experiences could affect our behaviors or values but I still think we cannot get rid of the influence of inherited instincts. Of course, our behaviors and values would not totally be driven by our inherited instincts because we are humans rather than animals.
Yes, religion is an authority mode as you need to believe it is real and come to trust it. I go both when I think about the issue of how values are chosen, but what it comes down to is how you grew up. If you were born into a Christian family that is involved with the church, you would go through believing that sex before marriage is wrong. You wouldn’t be able to choose your values as they are already laid out for you. For me, I freely choose what I believe in and what my values are. Sure my parents imposed values that I should follow, but I wasn’t forced or would I be ostracized for having my opinion on things. I also believe that we inherited instincts, like our sex drive and self preservation. But I am not driven by these instincts. I know that they are there and sometimes I have or feel them, but I don’t let it control me. My values and beliefs are from my own personal experience in my life. I don’t let other people influence me or dictate what I believe in.
Hi. I agree that there is a lot of pressure from peers and family members about one’s values. I think your values mainly stem from your parents and other family members when you’re younger and as you get older your opinions, beliefs, and values evolve from your religion, political views, your peers, your teachers, what you read and see in the media, etc. For me for example, my parents have good values that have stuck with me for a long time and I still agree with today. A couple values may have been altered from learning new things in school or the media or from friends values, but overall my core values that I learned from my parents when I was younger have always stuck with me.
I also believe personal values can be freely chosen, without the pressure from family, friends, and society. This connects back with the reading, “There are some basic choices, some uniform options that we are all faced with” (p. 5). While some of your core values may stem from how you were raised and from your parents, your later values can be chosen completely by your own opinion or beliefs. These are the “uniform” basic choices we are all faced with.
Are you curious about how to start affiliate marketing with no money? The main thing is to use free digital platforms for content creation and promotion. Building an online presence through organic methods can yield significant results.
When it comes to purchasing the movie or series inspired outfits,themoviefashion is the most trusted name. We are a premium online store where we specialize in crafting movie-inspired outfits.
We’re J4 Jacket, and we deal in celebrity, movie and TV series-inspired jackets. We use premium quality materials and high attention to detail in the making of our jackets. indiana jones leather jacket