We explain what ethical values are and how they regulate human behavior. Also, why they can vary according to each society.
What are ethical values?
Ethical values are a series of basic concepts that function as ethical maximsthat is to say, that each one functions as a model or example of ethical behavior. Furthermore, they receive their “ideal” character (of perfection) from this same role: they are only thought of in a state of perfection because they are a way to follow.
One of the philosophers who best defined ethical values was Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). For Kant, ethical or moral values were “ideas of practical perfection.” This shows its nature as ideas or regulative maxims that are taken as a model of action for ethical practice.
Each society, in each given time and place, puts into practice different values depending on the context. The question about the nature of values (whether they change or should always remain the same) is a matter of ethics as a philosophical discipline, and of morality as a field of practical study of ethics.
Key points
- Ethical values are concepts that regulate ethical behavior.
- They function as regulative maxims and ideals to which every society aspires.
- Although ethical values may vary, most societies share some basic values such as kindness, honesty, responsibility or empathy.
The ethics
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the study of human behavior and moral actions. It has its origin in the Greek term ethikoswhich is related to the character of each one.
It is important to distinguish ethics from morality, since ethics focuses on the analysis of the norms that govern morality and not on morality itself. Plato and Aristotle, prominent Greek philosophers, addressed ethical issues in their works, such as the nature of virtues and the pursuit of a happy life or “eudaimonia.”
In the 18th century, thanks to the works of Immanuel Kant, ethics focused on the construction of the categorical imperative, which represents an intrinsically good action and became the ethical maxim to regulate human behavior. Kant addressed this idea in his works Metaphysical foundation of customs, Critique of practical reason and Metaphysics of customs.
In the 20th century, the “ethical turn” occurred, which promoted research in the field of applied ethics and highlighted the need to distinguish between metaethics and normative ethics. Metaethics focuses on the meaning of moral terms, while normative ethics analyzes what actions are considered morally right or wrong from an ethical perspective. This approach has enriched the study and understanding of ethics and its relevance in today's society.
The values
One of the first philosophers to ask about values was David Hume (1711-1776). Hume believed that values were the principles of ethical and aesthetic judgments. This put them in a nominalist realm: they were nothing more than words that in themselves represented nothing. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), for his part, thought that values even affect scientific truths and everyday observations.
From Kant onwards, values function as regulative maxims. They are also desirable practices. This responds to the Greek root of the term “value”, axioswhich means “worthy of appreciation” or “estimable” and also “proportionate, convenient.”
Ethical values are proportionate, measured, regulative ideals toward which behavior is directed. They vary depending on who wants or pursues them. By embodying a collective desire, the form that values take responds to a community or even a society, no matter how heterogeneous it may be, and not to a particular individual. Notions such as “kindness”, “sincerity”, “humility” and “responsibility” are the result of a set of desirable practices transmitted from generation to generation and even passed along through conquests and migrations of different peoples in the history of humanity.
Due to their subjective nature, ethical values are difficult to define. Although it is true that there are some ideas that are repeated (gratitude, patience, kindness, empathy, responsibility, compassion), not all societies embody the same behavioral desire, nor do they expect from their members the same attitudes towards different situations of everyday life.
The axiology
Axiology (from the Greek axios“value” or “worthy of appreciation”) or value theory is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of values and evaluative judgments. It is mainly related to Ethics and Metaethics, Aesthetics and the Philosophy of religion.
One of the fundamental issues that axiology works with is the distinction between value intrinsic and value extrinsic. An extrinsic value is good for something external to itself, especially when it is an end for something else. On the other hand, something has intrinsic value when it is good in either by himself.
Axiology seeks to determine which entities have intrinsic value. Some theories, called moniststhey maintain that there is only one type of value intrinsic. The most paradigmatic example of monistic theory is hedonism.
A theory of ethical values is, by definition, and for the field of axiology, a substantive, pluralistic theory, which seeks to define which abstract entities in the ethical field have value in themselves and can function as moral ideas of practical perfection, such as as Kant intended.
References
- Aristotle (2011). Nicomachean ethicsin Pallí, J. (trans.), Aristotle (RBA ed., volume 3), Gredos.
- Kant, I. (1977). Critique of pure reason. Porrúa.
- Kant, I. (2020). Critique of practical reason (Vol. 1). Verbum Publishing.
- Bilbeny, N. (1992). How to think about moral values based on Kant? Taula: thought quaderns21-26.
- Bergson, H. (1998). The two sources of morality and religion. Technicians.
- Carrión, A. (2008). The sense of value, or the value in question. Universities10, 43-57.
- Hoyos Valdés, D. (2015). Aesthetic value and moral value. Dissertations4, 1-10.
