Are values relative or universal? What is definition of values? What is the meaning of values inquiry?

Defining Values

Values have been discussed and debated for
millennia. Plato, Aristotle, and Kant are among the many philosophers who have
weighed in on a question about

• what values are,
• where they come from
• and how they impact our lives

The term value originates from Valere’s Latin
word, meaning "to be worth.”

According to the Encyclopedia of Ethics, Value is
a thing or property that is itself worth having, getting, or doing, or that
possesses some property that makes it so and that a value belongs to anything
necessary for, or a contribution to, some living being or beings thriving,
flourishing, fulfillment or well being.

According to Milton Rokeach- Value is an enduring
belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally
or socially preferable to an opposite or converse method of conduct or
end-state of existence.

Shalom Schwartz – Values are conceptions of the
desirable that guide the way people select actions, evaluate people and events,
and explain their actions and evaluations.

Summing up the definitional issues – it is more
or less agreed by the scholars that:-

• values are agents of our thinking, acting, and
  choosing
• values may be selfishly or societally oriented;
  rooted in ideals or practicality
• some values are moral; others are non-moral
• some values are specific; others are abstract
• values underlie our attitudes, beliefs, and
  opinions, which in turn underlie our behavior
• we seek consistency/balance in our values, either
  consciously or unconsciously.

Values Inquiry

To make our values inquiry more scientific, we
should ask these questions:

1. Where and how did we learn or gain our values?
   Did they spring upon us without being aware of them, or was it a conscious
   process? Have we been brainwashed or propagandized into accepting specific
   values, or has it been the result of commonly accepted education – in home,
   religious institutions, or school?
2. Does it matter whether these values were
   developed rationally or irrationally, imposed upon us by authority figures or
   self-selected?
3. What is the most appropriate arena for the
   inculcation of values- religious setting, home, classroom, on the street
   through mass media form societal consensus, from laws or court decisions,
   serious inquiry should show how these value-forming institutions are frequently
   in conflict, causing the contents of our value system ebb and flow.

If we agree that ethics demand decision-making
and that decision-making is based on values, then we must understand values to
understand ethics. Knowing the different values that underlie our ethical
decision-making approaches will better recognize our priorities.

Are values Relative or Universal?

Although values have been defined differently,
many social scientists over the past half-century have concluded that people
share the same values- to different degrees, of course. The debate over ‘core
values’ is far from settled, and evidence demonstrates that we don’t always
walk our talk while saying we value something.

United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human
Rights states – to belong to the world community, a nation-state should defend
the core values of:

• life
• liberty
• freedom from personal attack
• freedom from slavery;
• recognition before the law and the presumption of
  innocence until proven guilty;
• freedom from torture;
• freedom of conscience and religion;
• freedom of expression;
• the right to privacy, family, and correspondence;
  
• freedom to maintain health and well-being.

Kidder in 2004 says thoughtful people were asked
what values they would include in a global code of ethics; there was consensus
about

• love,
• truth,
• fairness,
• freedom
• unity,
• tolerance responsibility and
• respect for life.