The reading relating to value is interesting to me because it brought me a lot of ideas about values. What one of the greatest idea that I agree with is value is sort of a life standard forcing us to do what follow your belief. Like the article says “Although the term value is often use 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.” (Page 7) People always talks about values, such as personal value, social value and cultural value and so on. Just like my friends and I, we are always talking about our values because it is a way that we try to understand each other. However, sometimes we are more like just saying something rather than talking about value because value should be used more seriously. Personally, value is about what you believe in, it should help people to standardize their actions and behaviors, so when we talking about value, at least we should follow it. I have heard a story says: Someone asked a question “If you were given a piece of paper, how would you do?” Farmer’s answer is “I will use this piece of paper to cover window from sun exposure. Artist answers that I will use this piece of paper to cut into a beautiful picture, and use it to beautify my life. Painter’s answer is “ I will use this piece of paper to create a perfect scenery making people enjoying in this landscape. Scholar answers I will use this piece of paper to write down my study. This story expresses that different people seeks to accomplish their values in different ways, but the way to success is acting as you believe in rather than just saying.
Hi Shelly,
I appreciated reading your insight. I especially enjoyed your example at the end because it represents the diverse ways in which different people can react to the same prompt. Also, I would like to discuss the significance of “good”, “just” and “beautiful”. I have trouble agreeing with Lewis on that point because every individual might act, behave and his or her best way of achieving “good”, “just” and “beautiful”, but that might conflict with society’s best interest. Does that make sense? Because we were all raised with different norms and ethical values, it is hard for me to imagine a world where everyone lives in a good, just, beautiful way. I think the environment and the damage civilization is causing is a perfect example of people’s ideas about what is “just”. Some people value their SUV’s, showering for 25 minutes everyday and don’t value the recycling bin. Those habits are probably not beneficial for society, but that individual is representing a strong personal value. I absolutely agree with you that our values are what we believe in! I think it’s fascinating to consider to abundance of different approaches to life and values we all have, which in the context of art is extremely vital. Great work!
Nicole
Hi, Nicole
Thank you very much for commanding my thoughts and exchanging your idea with me. I really appreciate your idea that it is very hard to achieve “just”, “good” and ”beautiful” while so many people from different places and have different values. In my opinion, as is known to all, the people who come from different places share different values. For example, the eastern countries such as China tend to believe that people should be cautious when getting along with others. However, the eastern countries believe that people should be more open-minded. The differences of values between different people and different countries can be found here and there. But the most essential values which can make great influence to the society has many things in common. For example, both the eastern and western countries think it is very important for people to be honest. And both the eastern countries and western countries believe that it is essential for people to help others when they are in need. And essential values shared by different societies are the best interest of society. Thus, I believe that the best behavior such as “just”, “good” and ”beautiful” is not conflict with the society’s best interest, but make great impact to the development of the society.
Shelly