2.

2 Value Experience: Values and Moral Values

The range of choices is so wide and varied. It ranges from the most trivial to the most
difficult choices and decisions that we have to make in our life.

When we are in the process of choosing among the alternatives in a given situation, even
in the most trivial things like choosing our outfit for the day, or what to eat, or what
hairstyle to adopt, the process of value experience comes into play.

Mothershead adds that this is the side-taking part of our experience. This valuation
process happens when we make choices and indicate our preferences, for example, when
we like or dislike, approve or disapprove, favor or disfavor. Values are the result of this
process of value experience where you set which priorities to pursue. They may also be
considered as imperatives that you have set your mind to do.

According to Mothershead, “All values are priorities with respect to some aspect of human
experience. This is usually expressed by saying that values are imperatives; they make a
claim upon us, whether we admit the claim or not.”

We do this valuation process when we set priorities among the choices or alternatives
available to us. For example, choosing to buy smartphones over something else reflects
the value placed on being socially connected. Now when does a value become a moral
value?

The priorities that we attach to values are limited in its scope of importance or significance
in our life. For example, money is a value and as a student you might save money in order
to buy something that you value more, like a new mobile phone. Once you have that new
mobile phone, you will be fulfilled until the next object of value that you would consider
worth saving up for.

In other words, money is a value because it is a means to an end, which could be another
value more important than money and for which you are willing to give up your money.
Your textbooks are of value throughout the school year that you are using them. But once
the school year is over, you would normally discard them to make way for a new set of
textbooks in your shelf for the next school year.

The value of looking at a beautiful face is often appreciated by many. When a beautiful
person passes by, everybody would look at that person and perhaps appreciate beauty
when they see it. But that is all there is to it. This is because beauty is just a value.

Can beauty become a moral value? Can money become a moral value? Can chastity and
purity become a moral value?

Mothershead argues that a value can become a moral value if it becomes an unlimited
priority in its scope of relevance in our life. This is to say that one is willing to give up other
values in order to promote what s/he considers as a moral value. Thus, a moral value
takes precedence and priority over other values.

In other words, you are willing to give up other values just to promote this moral
value. Moreover, the priority claimed by this moral value is unlimited because it could
 influence your decisions in other aspects of your life and you are willing to set other values
aside for it.

For example, those who value chastity and purity are willing to forego love in order to
remain chaste and pure. Money could also become a moral value for some people who
set aside other values, like family ties or friendship, for the sake of money. This could be
the reason why we sometimes hear negative labels like ‘Mukhang pera yan’, ‘Walang kai-
kaibigan o kamag-anak, lahat pera pera lang ang katapat’, ‘Diyos niya ang pera!’ Still
others may consider beauty as a moral value when they are willing to take risks to their
health, like having surgical enhancements in order to achieve beauty.

Values and moral value may change over time. As one matures and grows older, there
are values and moral value that one outgrows and a new set takes over. These changes
could be brought about by changing circumstances or by unforeseen events. For example,
after the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda, people in the affected areas may have re-
examined their priorities as they faced the reality of losing their loved ones.
1.2 Freedom and Morality

The concept of freedom, as well as the application of freedom to individual rights, has been widely used
in different levels of analysis in Philippine society as a whole. Freedom as a concept that pertains to the
moral realm is examined in this section. An important question that must be brought to light is : What is
freedom and how is it exercised in the realm of morals?

John Paul Sartre, an existentialist philosopher, assumes the idea of radical freedom by claiming that
“man is condemned to be free”. Sartre conceives of “man” as an unconstrained free moral agent in the
sense that he always has a choice in every aspect of his life.

Even if somebody points a gun at his head, he still has a choice whether to follow the wishes of his
captors. Sartre claims that “Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself.”

“Man” is never compelled or determined; he is totally free and therefore, totally responsible for all the
things that he does. When you exercise freedom in making your choices, you are taking control and
assuming full responsibility for those choices.

However, there is one important caveat: you are free but this freedom is not absolute. You cannot
do anything that you please without taking into consideration the norms of your society. Mores are there
to serve as a form of social control to limit, govern, or regulate your behavior in order to maintain order
in your society.

For example, you cannot just go about killing people you consider as obnoxious. You are perhaps
familiar with the saying ‘your freedom ends where my freedom begins’. Within the given parameters of
our environment, including the economic, political and social environment, we assume freedom.

Our discussion will come to nothing if we assume otherwise — i.e. that human beings are not free and
their choices are always determined by factors or forces in their environment. This deterministic view is
tantamount to saying that human beings are like robots or machines whose actions and functions can
be predicted like cause and effect given the parameters of the variables in his/her environment. Nor can
we embrace fully the extreme view of radical freedom without taking into consideration the norms of our
society.

Freedom of the human person in the moral sense of the word assumes that one is a free moral agent.
Moral, in this sense, refers to the freedom to make one's choice in accordance with one’s own moral
discernment of what is good and bad, and one is taking full responsibility for one’s own actions and is
using his/her rational and empathetic capacity as a moral being. Aside from our reason and critical
thinking, we also have the ability to empathize or to feel what other beings feel and to situate ourselves
in their shoes.
1.3 Necessary Conditions for Morality: Freedom and Obligation

According to John Mothershead, there are two necessary conditions for morality to occur: freedom
and obligation.

As explained above, freedom is assumed when one is making choices and is the agent taking full
responsibility for planning his/her life, and in the process, planning and budgeting his/her actions for
some future goal. This is in accordance with the individual’s moral and rational capacity to know and
discern what is right and wrong. This condition of freedom can be seen as limiting or constraining
the realm of morals for human beings.

Animals do not have the capacity to look forward and consciously plan for the future. Even when
ants hoard their food for the rainy days, this action is based on instinct. Only human beings are
capable of planning for their future, planning their life, and setting their goals as a result of these
plans.

The assumption of freedom entails another assumption, which is obligation. In its moral sense,
obligation is construed as a one’s duty to him/herself to exercise freedom as a rational moral
being. In other words, it is seen as his/her duty to him/herself to do this budgeting and planning for
the future because the future is yet to be and the only way to make it better is by being obliged to do
so. In other words, you are not free to be unfree.

In making moral decisions and choices, it is within the capacity of the human person as an active
and free moral agent to exercise his/ her freedom of choice as his/her obligation to him/herself.

Our discussion of freedom entails this basic presupposition: That the human person is free in the
exercise of making choices in the realm of morality—that is, in making choices with regard to
determining what is the right thing to do in situations and circumstances in his/her own life.

This can be summarized in our Filipino saying, “Buntot mo, hila mo!” It is taking full responsibility for
your actions and being obliged to do so. When was the last time you blamed other people for a
mistake that you made? There is a tendency for people to blame others for their choice of a course
of action.

For example, a couple who freely choose to marry each other out of love could, when the marriage
sours, blame each other for their predicament and end up saying he/she was forced or coerced by
the other into the marriage. However, it is one’s obligation to oneself to exercise one’s capacity for
deliberation and reflection by thinking about the consequences before making a decision. In other
words, this is an exercise of one’s rationality to the fullest without forgetting one’s humanity and
his/her capacity for empathy.