VALUES IN HUMAN LIFE. ETHICS

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Values

Individuals are not born with an ability to understand moral values and apply moral standards. As people mature, their physical, emotional, and cognitive abilities develop and so does their ability to deal with moral issues. Aristotle, an early Greek thinker who proposed one of the most influential theories of ethical thinking in the West, argued that our moral abilities which he called virtues or morally good habits, develop solely through constant practice and repetition, in the same way, he argued, humans acquire their moral abilities and when they are taught and habituated by their families and communities to think, feel and behave in morally appropriate ways. Such vitally important human values as courage, generosity, self-control, temperance, self-control, sociability, modesty, fairness or justice, are all virtues that he discussed and that he believed were acquired through this kind of habituation. And although in order to develop such values one must spare a lot of his time and effort, once they are acquired virtuous behavior comes easily and naturally.

Recently, a considerable number of thinkers have returned to Aristotle's views, claiming that we should place greater emphasis on the development of the moral values. Those who have advanced this claim hold that contemporary philosophy stresses too much action what people should and should not do - and that much more attention must be paid to people's character - what a human being should be. Some of them even argued that humans should not waste time on other aspects of ethics but should concentrate their efforts solely on trying to understand and develop the virtues that make a person a morally decent human being.

Although this extreme view was accepted by few philosophers , still a large number have begun to devote considerable energy to analyzing human values and some have produced analyses of great importance of the moral values that people should develop such as integrity, public-spiritedness, perseverance, veracity, fidelity, benevolence, and humility.

Recent work in the field of psychology has clarified the exact steps through which people move as their moral values develop and mature. Just as there are identifiable stages of growth in physical development, so the ability to make reasoned moral judgments also develops in identifiable stages. As children we are simply told what is right and what is wrong, and we obey unthinkingly so as to avoid punishment. The child's complying to moral standards is essentially based on self-interest. But as we mature and enter the stage of adolescence, these moral standards are becoming gradually internalized. We begin to understand their implications more clearly, and we follow them because associate closely with the well-being of people we and to whom we feel attached. So adherence to moral standards in this case is closely related with our loyalty to friends, relatives, and nation. Only when we become adults we start to realize how our moral standards are forced upon us by surroundings such as family, school, or religion; and we begin to rationally evaluate and searched them where seem to contain inconsistencies or inadequacies, or being biased against particular groups: Morality is now essentially based on universal standards that impartially take into account the interests of all people.

The psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, for example has concluded on the basis of his more than twenty years of research, that there is a sequence of six identifiable stages in the development of a person's ability to deal with moral issues as dictated by a person's values. Kohlberg divided these stages of moral development into three levels, each containing, two stages, the second of which is the more advanced and organized form of the general perspective of each level.

The first level is the so-called 'preconventional stages'. At these first two stages, the child is able to respond to rules and social expectations and can apply the labels 'good', 'bad', 'right' or 'wrong'. These rules, however, are seen as something external imposed on the self. Right and wrong are interpreted in terms of the pleasant or painful consequences of actions or in terms of the physical power of those who set the rules. The child sees situations only from his own point of view , and since the child does not yet have the ability to identify with others to any great extent, the primary innovation is self-interest.

The second level is called 'conventional stages'. To maintain the expectation of one’s family, peers or friends is seen as valuable in its own right, regardless of what the consequences might be. On this level person not merely conforms to the rules but also exhibits loyalty to the group and to the norms that are conventional in this group. The person begins to see things form the perspective of other members of the group, and runs into an assumption that everyone is similar. The person is thus motivated to comply to group's norms and subordinates his or her own needs and desires to those of a group.

The last level was named 'postconventional stages' or 'autonomous stages'. At 'these stages person not merely accepts the values and norms of the groups to which he or she belongs, but tries to see situation from the point of view that takes everybody's interest into consideration. The person starts to question the laws adopted by society and redefine them in terms of self-chosen moral values. The proper laws and values are those to which any reasonable person would be motivated to feely commit himself or herself, regardless of the social status of that person, or society to which that person belongs.

In terms of values, Kohlberg's theory is important because it helps to understand specifically how individuals develop their moral capacities through the internalization of the moral standard prevailing in their communities. It also shows us how we become increasingly sophisticated and critical in our use and understanding of these moral standards.

However, Kohlberg's theory has been a subject for various criticisms, the most substantial of which belongs to Carol Gilligan, a psychologist who suggests that although Kohlber's theory correctly identifies the stages through which men go as they develop, it fails to trace out the pattern of development of women. Gilligan argued, that because most of Kohlberg's subjects were male his theory fail to take into account thinking patterns of women.

Gilligan suggested that men tend to deal with moral issues more in terms of impersonal, impartial, and abstract moral rules, exemplified by the principles of justice and rights that Kohlberg says are characteristic of postconventional thinking. Unlike men, women tend to see themselves as part of a network of relationships with family and friends, and when they face moral issues they are concerned with sustaining these relationships and with avoiding hurt to others. Thus, for women morality is primarily a matter of caring and being responsible for others with whom one is involved in personal relationships, and not a matter of adhering to impartial and impersonal rules. In Gilligan's theory, 'preconventional' level of moral judgment for women is marked by caring only for oneself. Women progress to a second or 'conventional' level when they internalize conventional norms about caring for others to the neglect of oneself. And they move to the 'postconventional' level when, having become critical of the conventional norms they had earlier accepted, they come to obtain a balance between caring for others and caring for oneself.

However, what is important for us to note is that both Kohlberg and Gilligan agree that there are stages of growth in our moral development. They also agree that development of the moral values of a person moves from a preconventional stage focused on self-interest, through a conventional stage in which we accept the conventional moral standard of those around us, and on to a mature stage in which we learn to critically and reflectively examine the conventional moral standards we earlier accepted and to fashion more adequate standard of our own. Now, I feel it is a good time to switch from the theoretical overview of notion of values as perceived by psychologists and ethicists to a practical application of concepts that I learned while doing my research. Among other things Kohlberg argued that in fact, much of the American population does not reach the later stages, but remains at a conventional level of development throughout adulthood.

Using my own example I cannot yet disprove this statement for the reason that although I am already in the level of moral development Kohlberg defines as 'conventional' I am only in the early stage of my adulthood and I cannot predict whether my moral development will shift to a third level in the future. However, I agree that my personal values at the present are influenced by such social groups as family, peer group, sense of belonging to the nation. Maintaining the norms of these groups, is not on my part merely conforming to the expectations of others but also an exhibition of loyalty, as described by Kohlberg, to the interests of these groups.

A sense of personal freedom is topping my list of values. When I mention 'freedom' of course I do not imply with this word all-permissiveness and universal anarchy. In my understanding freedom more refers to state of mind not strained by any external factors. I value freedom because it gives me an opportunity to fully realize myself and it depends only on my decisions and my actions what kind of a person I am going to become. Personal freedom makes it easier for me disclose my potential and to make myself a better member of the society in which I live. I think striving for freedom has always been an all-American desire and that is what made this country as great as it is.

Another value that is very important for me is honesty. When you're being honest with people, generally they are trying to be honest with you, so it makes the communication process much easier. I abhor the idea of lying to people just for the purpose of reaching your own goals. Even when he or she succeeds I do not think there can be felt a whole lot of satisfaction from the accomplishment based on lies. Maybe I am sounding too idealistic but I strongly believe that our society would be much better if only people became more honest to each other. Primarily, the issue of honesty is concerned with politics and often we can see many crude and brutal crimes made against humanity, which could have been prevented if from the very start people were not deluded by the politicians' dishonesty.

Next I would like to mention is tolerance. It is a good value to have because no matter what are your personal views and attitudes you are a part of a society, and you have to learn how to cohabitate with the members of that society. Regardless of his or her status in society a person has certain duties towards the other people and one of them I think is a wiliness to help other people whenever the help is needed. For this to be done we have to learn how to understand the behavior and motives of other people even if their behavior appears as totally alien and unacceptable to you. Developing a great amount of tolerance for people you associate with is always imperative and only when you are initially tolerant to people their behavior will become more clear to you and if they need your help you will be able to help them, so eventually your tolerance will be gratified. For me both as person and a citizen of my nation loyalty value is also vitally important. In a narrow sense loyalty can be best viewed as how you treat your friends. Sometimes all of us hear stories when friends betray each other for the sake of money, power, women, etc. For me such behavior is completely unthinkable. When you betray someone who trusted you it is like betraying a part of yourself. But how can you call a person who betrayed his or her culture or nation? Such things are measured on a large scale now, but the essence is the same: the lack of loyalty.

And the last but certainly not least value I ought to mention is a strong feeling of family ties. Everything starts with the family. When you devour your family you devour yourself and all of your other values become meaningless. You cannot progress anywhere in your development unless you have a strong, caring relationship with the people that are closest to you. On the other hand when your family values are strong you have a solid base for improving as a person.

To conclude, I would like to say that many of my views and attitudes may be constantly changing throughout my life but my core values will always remain essentially the same. You have to have something solid down there in your soul to build upon-that's what the core values are all about. If you lose those values-you lose your sense of living, you become empty. The philosophy that I always try to follow is to become a better person, and my strong personal values are an indispensable tool for this task.

Bibliography

Freedman, Robinson, 'Sex Differences in Moral Judgement' A Test of Gilligan's Theory', Psychology of Women Quarterly, vol. 37 (1987).

Geach, Peter, The Virtues, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1977.

Gilligan, Carol, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.

Lickona, Thomas, Moral Development and Behavior: Theory, Research, and Social Issues, New York: Holt, Rineheart and Winston, 1976.

Sommers, Christina, Vice and Virtue in Everyday Life, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1985.

Walton, Clarence, The Moral Manager, Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1988.

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