In my point of view, value is something that is really abstract. There are no absolutely correct answers for it. However, sometimes we can define them in different situation and perspective based on different people. Just like the article says “individual A may like B in one respect, like C in another, like D in another. In other ways B may be more like D, C like A, and otherwise all four may be quite different”(Page 6). In this case, people all have different personalities that can attract others, those personalities may be considered as values which are about emotion, social experience, logic, etc.
Actually, I did ask my father “what is the value for different people?”, my father’s answer was “the value should be related to how much you contribute to the society, how much you get back from society. If you contribute a lot of time to do your business, then you should think about how much you earn as a whole.” When I recall the answer from my father, I think I can understand more about value. It is about different understanding of different people. My father act as a businessman to answer this question, but as for me, I believe the value is about how your personalities affect or attract others in life. It is obvious that different people have different feeling and emotion about other things.
Besides, as a person, not only do you have internal value, you also have external value. What I believe is about internal value, but what my father think is about external value. I believe people should realize the value of themselves clearly, in that case, they can be more confident in many field. If people only know the internal value of themselves, they may ignore how much they can contribute to society and how much they can do to change the world.
Therefore, people’s value is about how they know themselves, not only about personalities, but also about how you use your personalities to attract and affect others, to confident yourself and to make contribution to society.
In my point of view, value is something that is really abstract. There are no absolutely correct answers for it. However, sometimes we can define them in different situation and perspective based on different people. Just like the article says “individual A may like B in one respect, like C in another, like D in another. In other ways B may be more like D, C like A, and otherwise all four may be quite different”(Page 6). In this case, people all have different personalities that can attract others, those personalities may be considered as values which are about emotion, social experience, logic, etc.
Actually, I did ask my father “what is the value for different people?”, my father’s answer was “the value should be related to how much you contribute to the society, how much you get back from society. If you contribute a lot of time to do your business, then you should think about how much you earn as a whole.” When I recall the answer from my father, I think I can understand more about value. It is about different understanding of different people. My father act as a businessman to answer this question, but as for me, I believe the value is about how your personalities affect or attract others in life. It is obvious that different people have different feeling and emotion about other things.
Besides, as a person, not only do you have internal value, you also have external value. What I believe is about internal value, but what my father think is about external value. I believe people should realize the value of themselves clearly, in that case, they can be more confident in many field. If people only know the internal value of themselves, they may ignore how much they can contribute to society and how much they can do to change the world.
Therefore, people’s value is about how they know themselves, not only about personalities, but also about how you use your personalities to attract and affect others, to confident yourself and to make contribution to society.
Hi, Yiran. First of all, I appreciate your viewpoint that the values is abstract, which varies from person to person. However, I have a question that how does a person know himself, lacking his own value standard and understanding on external objective reality? When I read this blog, I found that you try to isolate values. You hardly mentions indispensable factors about establishment of values, such as external reality. Whereafter, you reveals that use your personalities to affect external world including attract others and to make contribution to society. It appears that they are contradictory.
But on my opinion, value is regarded as an important personal standard to guide us what should do and what should not to do. 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 people us to action to a particular kind of behavior and life (page 7). This is the best evidence to indicate that value and reality cannot be separated. All these shows that establishment and change of values have close relationship with reality including surroundings and habits, etc. Hence, it is vague and general to discuss that value is about the way a person to know himself. Great job!
Shelly
Hi, Shelly. Thank you for your opinion and your response. I would like to say that your response really makes me to think more about value, and it I really helpful. But based on your question, I think what I really mean about my first post is that I believe value itself has both internal and external aspect. When I mentioned about internal and external value, I did not mean that they are isolated, instead, they are complementary and indispensable. It is because that if people have internal value, those internal value may affect their external value, such as society contribution. On the contrary, if people have external value, those external value may help people face the reality which may let people think deeply about what they are doing and what is valuable. Therefore, I think they are not contradictory, instead, they are complementary.
Then, as for your own opinion and quote, I do agree with that value and reality can not b separated. Because when people evaluate themselves, they may recall the reality which may help them to make the decision. However, what I mean by the value is about the way a person to know himself is the basic thing about value, which is based on the reality and the quality or personality about themselves. As the article says “Make a list of such beliefs and then ask yourself: why do I believe this? How do I know it? If you reflect carefully, you will see that there are only a few ways that we “know” anything” (Page 8-9). I think it is clear that we may not realize or know everything, but knowing or realizing about ourselves might be the first thing touch the world, and then it would be easier to make a substantial foundation to understand internal and external value which are complementary.
I really appreciate your opinion 🙂
Yiran
Hi Yiran!
Reading through your blog post was definitely a cool experience. It was neat to see that you asked your father about what values are because it shows you are continuing the discussion outside of the class! I especially enjoyed the notion that values are both internal and external. I think you made a strong point that focusing too much on internal values can result in harm for the entire society. I want to further your argument by adding that often times individuals make actions that are best for them and not for the society as a whole. I think humans have an inherent drive for selfishness, and some people conquer it better than others. With that said, some people value community and belonging more than others! I think that as time has lapsed, humans have shifted their values more heavily towards the importance of community.
You also finished your discussion point by stating that people should “use your personalities to attract and affect others”. It would be wonderful to live in a world where people are constantly making a conscious effort to make a positive impact on their surroundings. Perhaps the first part in moving towards that direction is to educate people on different value systems!
Nicole
Hi, Nicole!
I am so glad that you agree with my opinion and give me your response. I would like to say that the things you added to my point is what I want to emphasize. As you mentioned, many people are selfish, they may not express at first, but deeply, people may always think about themselves first inherently. Actually, I do not think this is right or wrong, because it just happened subconsciously. Base on your point which is “as time has lapsed, humans have shifted their values more heavily towards the importance of community”, I really agree with it. As time goes by, people will think about others just like a community, we can achieve or show our values through helping others. After that, I think people may find their belonging and trust others more in the society as a whole. I believe everyone has an unique value, because everyone is different and may have their own beliefs.
Like the article says “The proposition that individual human beings are programmed into their values, either by the influence of genes on personality or by social pressures, can either be proven nor refuted, it all depends on how one defines words like control and freedom….” (Page 8), a lot of things can influence peoples values which may chosen by themselves. Therefore, I think if people can make a conscious effort to effect, world would be better just like you convinced.
Yiran