values_taxonomy

THE TAXONOMY OF

HUMAN VALUES

Human values are an individual matter, because each person judges what is good and important and what is not.

These judgments relate to things that are good and important for him personally, for a social group he belongs to or the society as whole and in general. According to this principle of classification we distinguish:

PERSONAL VALUES - SOCIAL VALUES - GENERAL VALUES

I was studying only personal values.

The taxonomy of human values should answer questions: "Which human values exist in reality?", "How many human values exist?" and "How can we classify human values in a logical system (What are the relations among human values)?".

Because human values are the conceptions of basic categories of desired and because their number is the same as the number of basic human motives, my list consists of the following human values:

social gathering

hobbies / free time

food / drink

property / money

beauty / art

power / influence

moral, ethical principles

new experiences / adventures

personal safety / health

children

partner / love

rest

job / work

friends

self-image

sexuality

parents / home

freedom / independence

sport activities

pleasure / comfort

prestige / fame

creativity

faith / God

knowledge / wisdom

Because of the universality of human values I had no major problem in translating the values list from Slovenian language.

In The Theory of Values chapter the relations among human values are explained. It is worth mentioning here that some human values express biological needs (food / drink, sexuality, pleasure / comfort etc.), and the other human values express social needs (job / work, friends, faith / God etc.).