Section 7

Values


Chapter 1

Values vs. morals

The study of values is usually called "axiology," and one of the major parts of it is that of the study of what is right and wrong. I think, as you will gather if you have read this far, that this is a mistake. I intend to treat right and wrong in the sixth part of this marathon tome, after going through the various modes of interaction between people. To explain why I am not treating it here, let me refer you back to the section on rightness and wrongness in Chapter 10 of Section 5 of the first part 1.5.10, where I said that they are the objective consistency or inconsistency of an act with the agent performing the act, and have nothing in themselves to do either with the evaluation of the act as good or bad, or even with the knowledge that it is in fact right or wrong.

Evaluation depends, as I said also in Chapter 10 of that section, on ideals or standards we freely set up. I repeated this in Chapter 6 of Section 3 of the third part 3.3.6, under Conclusion 9 and also Conclusion 11, connecting it to choice and goals, where I defined a value to be the aspect of something by which it leads to a freely chosen goal. It is our task here to explore this a little.

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