091 Most people think that their deeply held values are the

[Erin]

091 Most people think that their deeply held values are the result of rational choice, but reason often has little to do with the way people form values.

[nsoonhui]

091 Most people think that their deeply held values are the result of rational choice, but reason often has little to do with the way people form values.

Value in this context can be defined as a set of belief a person is adhering to. For instance, Asians believe that the youngster should never challenge the authority. This sort of conviction earns itself a name call "Asian value", crystallized by Lee Kuan Yu, the Singapore's ex-Prime Minister. This topic asserts that most people do not pick their principle based on reasoning, even though they presumed so. I agree with it wholeheartedly.

Most people just inherit their principle from their parents without critically dissecting it. Life is hectic, and thinking over accepted beliefs seems to be a tantalizing task for most of us. Most of us would not have the time nor the inclination to examine our dearly hold principle. Value is passed down from one generation to another mostly largely because of this. Most of us are too busy to care about such philosophical things. Take the much lauded Asian value as an example, how many Asians give some thought to it? Yes, Lee may be summarizing succinctly what Asians have been taught and what they believe, but his rhetoric has very little appeal outside the small academic circle. Asian students, businessmen and entrepreneurs just carry on with their works, unwilling to take a step back and ponder over the "Asian value". Certainly, reason has very little to do with why people form this or that set of values. If you ask them why they believe in the virtue of being submissive to the older ones, you will likely to get a blank stare.

Besides that, challenging the precepts or the accepted tenets can be uncomfortable at times. Human has the tendency not to exercise their mental muscles over thoughts that would uproot their values. To most of us, pondering over our system of belief is dangerous because such action is opening door for heretical seeds to slip in. As a consequence, we just shut off our brain when our values are being called into question. Enthrallment of the black vividly illustrates this point. It doesn't take long and hard reasoning to conclude that slavery is evil, that selling other people's dignity is contrary to our universal conscience. Yet most people preferred to suppress their conscience and reasoning because they didn't want to form a new value, a value that is base on rational thinking and principle of love. We have the predilection to hold on to old beliefs, no matter how irrational it is.

What is the consequence of such mental indifference? For starters, it encourages tyrannies and discourages sceptism. Tyrannies exert their control over their people by feeding them a set of values and penalizing the dissenters who dare to violate the given beliefs. Ancient China emperors called themselves the Chosen One and all Chinese had to have the value of following the emperors, even to their deaths. Such a value encouraged war and deprived the Chinese of their basic human rights for a few thousand years. China history would be rewritten if Chinese refused to accept the handed down values without proper securitization and discretion.

To summarize, we can conclude that reasoning has generally very little to do with values forming. We are getting most of our principles directly from other without filtering them first. If we are willing to thinking a bit more on our belief and to change it if it is unreasonable, we will have a better society.

[gre_newbie]

A very nice essay written in 2004.

[ruchia]

it seems to be a difficult one! I tried thinking over it before reading. :-S
Thanks Gre_newbie for bringing it up.

[geek_goddess]

Wow, that was mindblowing! The position was nicely substantiated, and there were examples too.
Here's mine, which is comparatively vagues, adn not so well substantiated.. what do you guys think?

To state that a person's reasoning has little to do with their values is tantamount to saying that a man's destiny has been written before his birth on his forehead, and that he has no control over how his life will unravel. To be able to choose one's values through rational thought is to be able act on the basis of rational thought, through realizing these values, and these actions together cumulate to decide the unfolding of our destiny.

It is true that many factors influence a person's values, such as one's parents, teachers, and peers. It matters what the value of the times one is in, one's culture, what one's social and economic status is. However, to claim that a person is subconsciously influenced by all these factors and has no selection or control over what he imbibes, is erroneous. While a person certainly listens to their parents, there are many times that there are differences in opinion. A person incorporates the influences on his value system from a variety of sources, and processes these to have a coherent and consistent world view. There is a conscious decision of what to imbibe, what to ignore, and what to take with a pinch of salt.

Often, a person may be unduly influenced by a single incident in his or her life, for example, a person may have generalize their dislike for a certain religious or ethnic group based on a particular interaction with a person from the group which had a negative outcome. However, over time, intuition gives way to reason, and the individual realizes the error in generalizing from a single incident. This process of change in one's attitude is an incidence of the change in a values. It may require a single external interrogation or may result as an outcome of internal discourse and deliberation over time. But to know that one has a particular value concretizes that particular value, and it forces us to consider this value rationally. Thus, any value we know we have, we have thought it out rationally. However, there are values that a person has which they are not aware of, and such values are still in the process of being concretized.

To substantiate my argument, I point out what a common situation in a court of law. A person defends a certain position, or defends his actions on the basis of certain values. This defense of a position is extremely rational, premeditated, and reflects a coherent belief system; it is necessary that the beliefs be consistent to be tenable in court. To defend one's position in a situation such as a court of law or a political debate, requires one to consciously clear out one's value system, the basis for one's belief in a position.

To conclude, I believe that humans do have control over their destiny, a destiny decided by their conscious actions, which are in turn dictated by conscious thought through reference to one's values. These values are in turn consciously determined, and thus we are not mere puppets of fate, we do not merely implement what our parents, peers, and the media has taught us, we think of our own accord, and act in a manner consistent with our value system and world view. We are truly conscious beings.

[rajas]

Originally Posted by gre_newbie

A very nice essay written in 2004.

Hello gre_newbie, please tell me about where it was written in 2004.I am confused. rajas.

[gre_newbie]

Originally Posted by rajas

Hello gre_newbie, please tell me about where it was written in 2004.I am confused. rajas.

Notice the date of the post.

[tamsel]

nsoonhui and geek_goddess issues are plausible but the examples stated are personal and generic , nonetheless , we cannot provide more than , to this type of issue . Does this warranted for score 5 to 6 ? or specific dated examples are to provided ?



Cheers ,
Tam