Value system Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
A value system is in essence the ordering and prioritization of the ethical and ideological values that an individual or society holds. While two individuals or groups may share a set of common values, they may differ in their determination of which values in that set have precedence over others. The two individuals or groups are said to have different value systems, even though they may have many values in common, if their prioritization of values differs, or if there are different exceptions they attach to these values. Groups and individuals whose differing value systems have many values in common may still wind up in conflict, ideological or physical, with each other, because of the differences in their value systems. People with differing value systems will thus disagree on the rightness or wrongness of certain actions, both in the abstract and in specific circumstances. In essence, a value system (if sufficiently well-defined) is a formalization of a moral code.
The premise behind the discipline of rigorously examining value systems and the differences between them (given the provisional name ethonomics) is that an understanding of these differences in prioritization of values can lead to greater understanding about the politics (and motivations) of individuals and groups. While political discourse in recent times has frequently focused on the "values" held by the people engaging in the discourse (be they candidates, office holders, or media pundits), in reality those being compared share many (perhaps most) values in common. It is in their prioritization of those values that they differ, causing them (as a result of these different prioritizations) to come to different conclusions about what is right and wrong, and to take different actions accordingly.
One example of a simple formal value system is Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, which is intended as value system (of sorts) for robots in the hypothetical future of Asimov's science fiction novels. Simply distilled, the laws stipulate that:
- human life is of primary importance and value ("A robot may not harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.")
- orders given by human beings to robots are secondary, to be obeyed as long as they do not violate the first law ("A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.")
- a robot's own existence is of tertiary value, meaning that a robot should preserve its own life only if the other two laws have been satisfactorily complied with ("A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.")
In order to define value systems, we need to define the characteristics of values that could be represented in a value system. The values that a group or person holds may fall into several different categories. The ones that usually concern us in the area of value systems are the ethical and the ideological.
As mentioned earlier, a value system is the ordering and prioritization of the ethical and ideological values that an individual or society holds. The specific prioritizations may lead to designated exceptions invoked because one value is deemed more important than another (e.g., "lying is wrong, but lying to save someone else's life is acceptable, because human life is more valuable (more highly valued) than the principle that lying is wrong").
Regardless of whether or not value systems are formed logically, they determine for individuals and societies what actions they are likely to act and how those actions are likely to be justified (or perhaps 'rationalized').
Value systems can be categorized along multiple axes:
A value system may be held by a group of people, a community or society, or it might be held by an individual. An individual person's value system might be consistent with or equivalent to the community's value system. Consistency does not imply equivalance, though. An individual's value system might even hold the person to a higher standard, and still be consistent with the community's value system. (Consistency within a value system, described below, refers to the degree to which contradictions and overt situational exceptions are absent from that value system; consistency between value systems means that any action that might be taken in one value system would not contradict the rules associated with another.)
One way of looking at differences between value systems is to think of the exceptions to the "rules" associated with values. These could be abstract exceptions (which are generalized enough in the way they are defined to take hold in all situations) and situational exceptions (which only can be said to be applied in very specific situations). The more generalized the exception, the more useful it is in a wider context for defining a consistent value system. In general, abstract exceptions serve to reinforce the prioritization of values, e.g.: Lying is wrong, but lying to save someone else's life is acceptable, because preserving a human life is more valuable (more highly valued) than the adhering to the principle that lying is wrong. In a formal value system (idealized or realized), the default exception associated with each value is assumed to be "as long as no higher-priority value is violated". However, this hierarchical structure may be too simplistic in practice, and explicit exceptions may need to be specified.
Examples of exceptions in practice:
A value system whose exceptions are abstract, generalized enough to be used in all situations, is said to be an internally consistent value system. On the other hand, a value system whose exceptions are highly situational, or whose exceptions are inconsistently applied, is said to be an internally inconsistent.
A value system's consistency (or lack thereof) does not necessarily say anything about how 'good' or 'evil' it is. A value system that declares that lying and murder are acceptable, that essentially endorses a 'might makes right' morality, could be internally consistent in its approach. Likewise, an internally inconsistent value system, loaded with inconsistently applied situational exceptions, might be considered perfectly acceptable if the 'meta-value' of consistent application of values is not part of the value system. (The paradox here is that the absence of this value in a value system makes it consistent, because there is no constraint that says it must be consistent. It could be argued that those who explicitly omit this meta-value from their value system implicit endorse consistency as a value in that act of deliberate omission. On the other hand, those who hold this value )
These exceptions, especially when they are implicitly rather than explicitly defined, often yield a difference between an idealized value system and the realized value system. The idealized value system is the simple listing of values (in priority order) that a person or society would purport that they employ in determining right and wrong. The realized value system is the one they actually use in day-to-day life. While people claiming to employ a particular value system might say they place more value on x than y, more often than not there are deviations from this in practice. A consistent value system A religion may list a strong set of positive values, but its adherents and even those who are leaders of the religion may stray from those in practice. Idealized value systems often list strict rules (perhaps without any prioritizing order) but do not carefully define exceptions, abstract or situational. Realized value systems, in practice, often have a number of exceptions associated with them, but they may not be explicitly defined or consistently applied. Absolutists hold to their idealized value system and claim no exceptions other than the default.
Some fundamental values that most people seem to share, at least in theory, are:
This section is devoted to the process of using rational analysis to resolve conflicts between value systems.
In individualism, the needs and wants of the individual take precedence over the needs and wants of a society or community. The implicit exception inherent in individualism is usually "as long as the actions of the individual do not harm other individuals." Absolutists may claim that even this exception does not hold.
In collectivism, the needs and wants of the society or community take precedence over the needs and wants of the individual. Rarely is the exception invoked that this is true "as long as the actions of the society do not restrict individuals ."
It could be argued that a rational value system puts value on the needs and wants of the society or community structure, but does not give this more value than the needs and wants of the individuals within it. It is relatively easy to argue the case for this prioritization: under collectivism, a community could decide (however such decisions might be made) that it would work better if there were no people in it to interfere with the smooth running of society. While this might be true, since people tend to "complicate" the smooth running of any social order, it would create a society without any people, something which is clearly against the interest of the people in that society—would we rationally advocate our own extinction if it made the "system" of society run better?
A rational resolution to the conflict between individualism and collectivism might structure these values in this manner:
The name proposed for the discipline that tries to perform this task—mapping and formalizing value system prioritizations and resolving conflicts between disparate value systems through rational analysis—is ethonomics.
Definitions
Values
Value Systems
Characteristics of Value Systems
Personal vs. Communal
Exceptions
Consistency
Idealized vs. Realized
Defining Values
In practice, realized examples of these values would be a good deal more complicated, with exceptions already embedded within them.
In general, these values declare that "it's wrong to interfere in another person's life unless they do things to interfere in yours" This corresponds in essence to what has been called the Wiccan Rede which declares that "[As long as it] harms none, do what thou wilt". While this may seem an elegant moral principle, in practice it runs into trouble because of the differing priorities people place on specific individual values, because of the way differing value systems define what is and isn't 'harm', and perhaps most of all because of the different exceptions implicitly or explicitly defined in a value system.Examples of conflicting value systems
Individualism vs. collectivism
Of necessity, as you can see here, the exceptions associated with values like these can become recursive and often convoluted.Humanism vs. various forms of authoritarianism
Laissez faire capitalism/Libertarianism vs. socialism/communism/etc.