Michael Mitchell: Archive

A value is that which one acts to gain and/or keep. This definition (Ayn Rand's) appears to be lacking context -- which is why I chose it -- unless you realize the obvious fact that life itself is a choice -- and most of the time we take it for granted -- but I'm getting ahead of myself. I want to talk about values, but first it's necessary to examine how we use the concept in our daily lives, unfortunately.

We all act to gain and/or keep different things, of course, which is all most people see, that we all simply want and need different things, but there are also many different views of the concept "value" itself, views which interfere with our understanding of our concept of what we think we should act to gain and/or keep.

It's the crux of every ethical code -- altruism, utilitarianism, pragmatism, hedonism, a bazillion religions -- and our minds are literally corrupted by the contradictory moral views of others before it's too late to see morality from an independent, individualistic perspective, before we can fully consciously value ourselves, but not only do we helplessly allow others to proscribe values for us, we also act to gain and/or keep things before we're aware of the concept, so if it's formed for us (implicitly) before we've had the chance to form it for ourselves, what ultimately determines our selection of what we value? Do we value?