VALUES EDUCATION

Module 2 - The nature and characteristics of values

Lesson 1 – Etymology (the origin of the word): Latin valere, “to measure the worth of something”

Lesson 2 – Axiology as a branch of philosophy: the branch of philosophy which studies the nature
of value and valuation, and of the kinds of things that are valuable

Lesson 3 – Different views on the nature of values

a. Max Scheler: “acts reveal the person’s value preferences; a person’s acts manifest his invisible
order of values”
b. Brian Hall: “values refer to the major priorities that one chooses to act on and that creatively
enhances his life and the lives of those with whom he associates himself with”
c. Edgar Brightman: “values are ideas and principles by which man lives; value means whatever is
actually liked, prized, esteemed, desired, approved, and enjoyed; a realization of one’s
desires”
d. George Homans: “values are the unconscious assumptions the members of any society make”
e. Sociologists and anthropologists: values are those criteria according to which a community
judges the importance of persons, patterns goals, and other sociological aspects of the
community
f. Psychologists: values are those which make something desirable, attractive, admirable, and
worthy of approval; values inspire feelings, judgments, or attitudes, and uplifts self-esteem

Lesson 2 – Characteristics of values according to Max Scheler

a. Values are absolute: e. g., honesty remains a value whether it is found in the poor or the rich, in
the young or the old, in the past or the future, in one’s own place or faraway places
b. Values are objective: e. g., love remains a value regardless of what we feel or think about it
c. Values are hierarchy-given: some things are more valuable than others; e. g., we may forego
personal freedoms for the sake of common good
d. Values are given in pairs: every positive value has a corresponding counter value; e. g., success
has corresponding failure

Lesson 3 – Characteristics of values according to Tomas Andres

a. While values are absolute, their appreciation is relative: while something has value for
something, it may not have value for another thing; while something has value now, it
may lose its value in the future; while something is valued in a certain place, it can be
deemed worthless in some other place
b. While values are objective, their appreciation is subjective: one discovers value in the context of
events or encounters within a society; the relationship between a person/subject and the
circumstances surrounding the discovery of values vary from society to society, hence the
subjectivity of values