What value do you navigate by?

Post Reply
coberst
Posts: 1516
Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2005 6:30 am

What value do you navigate by?

Post by coberst »

What value do you navigate by?

It appears to me that we sapiens need a “North Star” upon which to fix our voyage. We need a reference point upon which we can focus our attention when trying to determine what of value we can and should do in life.

Religion, or God, serves as the compass for some people; for others it is nationalism; for others the guiding value is to own as much good stuff as possible; to others it is power; for some it is family; and I guess there are many other such ultimate values.

I have tried to examine my inner voices to determine just what my primary value is and does it need to be changed. I have determined that, by some turn of events, perhaps completely willy-nilly, my value North Star is life on this planet. My guidance for fixing value is ultimately dependent upon its aiding or hindering life on this planet.

I often speculate that human life is a hindrance to maximizing the ‘good life’, of all life, on this planet. I often speculate that if all life on this planet were given a vote in this matter that they would throw sapiens overboard.

What do you think?
coberst
Posts: 1516
Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2005 6:30 am

What value do you navigate by?

Post by coberst »

Beauty and morality are species of values.

George Santayana says that “all values must be ultimately intrinsic”. He adds that the good, i.e. that which is desired, is good because of its consequences.

Aesthetics is about the perception of values. Aesthetic judgments “are mainly positive, that is, perceptions of good, moral judgments are mainly and fundamentally negative, or perceptions of evil…in the perception of beauty, our judgment is necessarily intrinsic and based on the character of the immediate experience, and never consciously on the idea of an eventual utility in the object, judgments about moral worth, on the contrary, are always based, when they are positive, upon the consciousness of benefits probably involved.”

“Morality is a means and not an end; that it is the price of human non-adaptation, and the consequence of the original sin of unfitness. It is the compression of human conduct within the narrow limits of the safe and possible. Remove danger, remove pain, remove the occasion of pity, and the need of morality is gone. To say “thou shalt not” would then be impertinence.”

If we think about it we can see herein why our moral consciousness recedes as our luxuries increase, and we can see why caring for another is more the characteristic of those who have little and is of lesser value to those who have much.

Quotes from The Sense of Beauty: Being The Outlines of Aesthetic Theory by George Santayana
User avatar
OpenMind
Posts: 8645
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2005 3:54 am

What value do you navigate by?

Post by OpenMind »

coberst;1184339 wrote: What value do you navigate by?



It appears to me that we sapiens need a “North Star” upon which to fix our voyage. We need a reference point upon which we can focus our attention when trying to determine what of value we can and should do in life.



Religion, or God, serves as the compass for some people; for others it is nationalism; for others the guiding value is to own as much good stuff as possible; to others it is power; for some it is family; and I guess there are many other such ultimate values.



I have tried to examine my inner voices to determine just what my primary value is and does it need to be changed. I have determined that, by some turn of events, perhaps completely willy-nilly, my value North Star is life on this planet. My guidance for fixing value is ultimately dependent upon its aiding or hindering life on this planet.



I often speculate that human life is a hindrance to maximizing the ‘good life’, of all life, on this planet. I often speculate that if all life on this planet were given a vote in this matter that they would throw sapiens overboard.



What do you think?


I have racked my brains over this question. Quite an interesting conjecture.

One thing I am fairly certain on is that most of our life values are in place before we become adults.

Of course, much has changed over the last few centuries and I don't know what it's like to grow up in today's society but many of my ideals and values were ingrained into me by the time I was ten years old. Thus, my 'compass' was set.

Yet, over time, I have frequently tested my compass for 'trueness'. It would be fair to say that my values now are very far removed from those of my parents because of this constant testing of my 'compass'. Thus, I can fairly say that my values are fluid.

The question you ask is made more difficult to answer because, even within a close circle of friends, each person's compass can vary very widely in its orientation. Again, this is because of our unique circumstances of birth.

Friendships can be created not only by common principles but also by contrasting values that happen to complement each other. For instance, a great thinker who cannot express their thoughts very well would get on well with someone who can interpret the thinker's concepts into terms that are easy to understand. Some people have the ability to conceive the concept. Others have the ability to put it into words. Yet others have the ability to make it workable.



As a child, my first question would always be what, then how, and finally, why? Put more appropriately, it becomes what is it or what occurred? How does it exist or how does it occur? Why does it exist or why does it occur? More recently, I have had the extra notion of wondering if there is a meaning behind the perception.



We learn social values as we grow up through a combined input from our immediate family or 'home' environment. These values are tested through adolescence and we move into adulthood with the results of our adolescent experiments. Thereafter, the adult becomes either fixed in their attitude, not allowing any notion or concept or even proof to sway their model of life; or they are always open to new ideas, assessing each critically and either accepting the idea or rejecting it. The most flexible people can break down a concept into its component parts and individually reject or accept those parts accordingly.



Your question is interesting from another point of view. I find that I hold a lot of values and concepts as images and/or feelings rather than as words or theses. Contrary to what a lot of people may think, I find it very difficult to transpose these values and concepts into verbiage. Sometimes, I find the words I need only through exercising my artististry.

Well that's a start at any rate. I think that it would be interesting to consider the values I held as I was growing up and compare them to the values I have now as well as those values I have taken on and dropped.
coberst
Posts: 1516
Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2005 6:30 am

What value do you navigate by?

Post by coberst »

OpenMind



I am convinced that our civilization cannot endure for another 200 years if the citizens of the world do not quickly become significantly more intellectually sophisticated. Our great capacity for creating technology is not matched by our ability to create a moral understanding which will permit us to control our technology. Our species is at the end of its rope if we do not drastically change.

Our high tech creations are driving the world at a very high speed. If our species is not able to adapt to this high speed transition our species cannot survive.

Under such circumstances we must be prepared to modify the values and understanding that we left childhood with. We must become much more agile of intellect, all of which means we can no longer afford the luxury of our present level of intellectual sophistication.
User avatar
OpenMind
Posts: 8645
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2005 3:54 am

What value do you navigate by?

Post by OpenMind »

Technology does come at a great price and the planet will be forcing us to pay this very soon. We have given nothing back. The term Gaia comes to mind and embodies the idea of treating the planet, our home, with proper respect.
Post Reply

Return to “Philosophy”