After reading the second section of the book “A Question of Values: Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices That Shape Our Lives”, I had a brief idea about how the Lewis, the author, looked at this issue, and I also have some own ideas about it. First of all, I agree with Lewis that the definition of value is quite difficult to find, and different people would have different definitions for it. Just like Lewis stated in the second section of the book, “although the term values is often used loosely, it should be synonymous with personal evaluations and related beliefs, especially personal evaluations and related beliefs about the ‘good,’ the ‘just,’ and the ‘beautiful,’ personal evaluations and beliefs that propel us to action, to a particular kind of behavior and life.” (p. 7) I personally believe that the term “personal value” is one of the most abstract terms we ever had in human history. It is far beyond people’s basic needs like food, clothes, and language, which means it is not a necessary part for a person to live. However, this term has become such a hot issue that people in different area are all discussing and looking into it. I think this is because more and more people start to notice the importance of intrinsic moral.
Humans are using sources and energy for thousands of years, and it is time to consider what and how we could give back valuable things to the Earth, or to the universe. Therefore, I think people’s value is what he or she has done in term of impact. I am not quite agree with Lewis when he said value most likely is some personal evaluations and beliefs about good and beautiful. I personally think that the impact people bring to others doesn’t necessary have to be something good, because even if someone does bad things, this could be treated as a bad example so that other people could learn from it and to do it better.
Lastly, I really think it is a really straight forward argument, which is “surely what matter most are the values themselves, not the way we arrive at them” (Lewis, p. 13) This is also my view to this “personal value” issue, and I always believe that this is human’s world, and I assume we all should to try to make this world better. It doesn’t matter how we define things, but it matters how we do things.
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Yes Rice, the term of the “values” is intangible and you also think about the “personal value”, which is a good point because we can not live alone on the world though we are individual. It is vital to respect each value no matter the spiritual level.Besides,I appreciate about your critical perspective on the idea “value most likely is some personal evaluations and beliefs about good and beautiful”. It is reasonable that there is no standard for the values. Everyone is equal to each other and free to express their values no matter the rich or poor, positive or negative in US.That is easy to understand why people from all over the world can be with each other harmoniously. Beyond that, in the end, you point out ” It does not matter how we define things, but it matters how we do things.” It touched me a lot, knowing value itself is vague but the process of defining the value is much more fun and meaningful. Thank you for your critical thinking which is valuable for me!