Choosing our values

Let us go back to the evacuation because of a fire in our neighbor’s house.

Imagine that you decided to take with you just these four things:

- Your mobile phone
- An old photograph of your grandmother
- Your school notebooks
- Your pet turtle.

Why did you decide to take with you those things and not other ones?

- Do you desire them very much?
- Is it because of your feelings for those things?
- Do you like them very much?
- Is it because you think you need them in the future?

Composition

Write a small composition answering some of the questions we have talked about.

Origin of our values

Generally speaking, we value things because of one of two reasons:

1. Because we desire them, we feel that we want them or need them. This is an almost immediate reaction, we do not need to think much about it. These values are based in our desires and feelings.
2. Because we think about them and then we realize they are valuable to us. This is not immediate, we have to think a bit about the consequences of having or loosing something and then we decide it is valuable for us, for an important project in our life.

Exercise 4.1

We do some things because we just like them. Their value is based in our desires and feelings.

We do some other things after thinking that they are good for us. Their value is based on our projects.

Fill up the following table with three examples of each kind:

Value conflicts

Sometimes, our desires and feelings coincide with our reasoning. We value things both because we like them and also because our reason tell us they are important.

Other times, there is a conflict between our feelings and our thinking and we have to choose which value is more important.

Exercise 4.2

For each of following examples, try to answer the following questions:

- What value or values do you see in the example? Remember that a value is a property that makes something valuable, important, good for us. There are economic, sentimental, instrumental, aesthetic and moral values.
- Which values come up from desires and feelings and which ones come up from reasoning? In some cases, both our desires and our reasons make us value something.
- Is there a conflict between desire and thought? Sometimes there is a conflict, other times not.

Choosing our values

As we have seen, what is important to us depends on our desires, needs and feelings but also on our thinking and reasoning.

As we grow, our thinking, our experiences and what we learn from the people around us. All these have an effect in our values.

We decide what is important to us and what is not so important.

As we grow, we are more and more responsible of our values and of our actions directed by them and towards them.

Exercise 4.3

Try to reflect on how your values have changed since you were a child.

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