Category Archives: Unit 02

Today, my day so far has been primarily about enjoying the nice weather and taking a day to myself doing things I enjoy doing. I played golf in the morning, worked out after that, and now plan on spending the rest of my day relaxing. My activities for the day represent values like health, friendship, and enjoyment. My activities for today match up pretty well for my top 5, which included friendship, and health was also near the top. Some of my values I got from my family were personal development and accomplishment. I was always taught I need to work hard for the things that I want and I continue to implement those values into my life today. I still have a lot of goals that I still haven’t pursued, like finding a career in my field or buying a home in my hometown, these are long term goals that I’m still working towards. I need to finish college and gain some experience in post-college life before I can make serious strides towards these goals.

My list went as follows:

Family. Friendship. Personal Development. Leadership. Personal Accomplishment. Integrity. Loyalty. Wealth. Expertness. Health. Wisdom. Service. Creativity. Power. Prestige. Independence. Security. Community. Enjoyment. Location.

The reading for this week offered a variety of contestable opinions concerning values and how they are developed and utilized. For me personally, the most intriguing topic concerned the idea that values are not something encrypted in every person’s genetic code, but rather values are something that can be chosen and developed throughout the course of a person’s life. Lewis uses a series of examples that strengthen this idea like the fact that many people in Tibet, prior to Chinese invasion, opted to live practicing celibacy in monasteries, challenging the notion that sex and the desire to sustain our own species is an inherited trait that we all share. This example and the others that Lewis uses in his argument show that the values we live with are things that we can choose to live with and things we can change when we feel it is necessary. For me personally, I still don’t have the desire to “sustain my own species”, this is a value that I have chosen to live with up until this point in my life, but that does not mean that my values cannot change somewhere along the line.

Because Lewis uses several different contestable ideas, there is an idea I would challenge. When Lewis uses his Star Wars example, he explains that Obi Wan’s character is pushing Luke’s character to choose emotion over deductive reasoning and would therefore make emotions Luke’s primary force in discerning his own values. (I enjoy Star Wars as much as everyone and thoroughly enjoyed the reference.) But in my own opinion, I view this as a much more, scenario-based value decision more so than a large scale choice. Because Luke’s character ultimately chooses emotions and doing what’s right, that does not mean that all of his values are going to be constructed along the same lines. Some values are made in small decisions and are not as concrete as others. I would contest that examples like this just goes to show that people can possibly change their value system when it means making the right decisions.