Values

Values are the guiding principles of our lives. They are essential for positive human behaviour and actions
in our daily lives. They are formed on the basis of interests, choices, needs, desires and preferences. They
have played important role in not only sociology, but also psychology, anthropology and related
disciplines.

Values

Values can be defined as those things that are important to or valued by someone. That someone can be an
individual or, collectively, an organization. One place where values are important is in relation to vision.
One of the imperatives for organizational vision is that it must be based on and consistent with the
organization's core values. In one example of a vision statement we'll look at later, the organization's core
values - in this case, integrity, professionalism, caring, teamwork, and stewardship- were deemed
important enough to be included with the statement of the organization's vision. Dr. John Johns, in an
article entitled "The Ethical Dimensions of National Security," mentions honesty and loyalty as values that
are the ingredients of integrity. When values are shared by all members of an organization, they are
extraordinarily important tools for making judgments, assessing probable outcomes of contemplated
actions, and choosing among alternatives. Perhaps more important, they put all members "on the same
sheet of music" with regard to what all members as a body consider important.

Values are the embodiment of what an organization stands for, and should be the basis for the behavior of
its members. However, what if members of the organization do not share and have not internalized the
organization's values? Obviously, a disconnect between individual and organizational values will be
dysfunctional. Additionally, an organization may publish one set of values, perhaps in an effort to push
forward a positive image, while the values that really guide organizational behavior are very different.
When there is a disconnect between stated and operating values, it may be difficult to determine what is
"acceptable."

Meaning/Definitions of Values

Human values have been employed in so distinctively different ways in human discourse. It is often said
that a person has a value or an object has a value. These two usages have been explicitly recognised by
writers in various disciplines such as Charles Mortris in Philosophy, Brevster Smith in Psychology and
Roibin Williams in Sociology.

If one wants to know the origin of the term ‘VALUE’, it may be stated very firmly that the term ‘VALUE’
comes from the Latin word ‘VALERE’ which means ‘to be of worth’. Whereas, the concise Oxford
Dictionary defines the term VALUE’ as the ‘worth, desirability or utility of a thing’.

Value is “a concept explicit of implicit, distinctive of an individual or characteristics of a group of

those desirable traits which influence the selection from available modes and ends of action.”

According to Rokeach, “Value is an enduring belief, a specific mode of conduct or an end state of
existence, along a continuum of relative importance.”

According to Shaver, “Values are standards and principles of judging worth. They are a criteria by which
we judge things — people, objects, actions, ideas and situations — to be good, worthwhile, desirable or on
the other hand, worthless, despicable, undesirable or somewhere in between these two extremes”.

The Shaver’s definition consists of three elements:

 (i) Values are concepts, not feelings.
(ii) Values exist in the mind independently of self-awareness or public affirmation.
(iii) Values are dimensional rather than absolute categories.

Why Values are needed?

We encounter several circumstances every day which test our patience, our character and peace of mind.
We have to make tough decisions each day. What guide us in these circumstances are our values. Our
values serve as markers to tell if life is heading in the right direction.

When our actions and words are aligned with our values, life feels good and we feel content, confident and
satisfied. But when our behaviours don’t match-up with our values, we sense an uneasiness that grows
inside us. This uncomfortable feeling tells us that not all is good right now. We feel out-of-sorts. These
feelings can be a source of anxiety and unhappiness. We need value in our lives to:

 Guide us in the right path.

 Learn the importance of certainty, goodness and beauty.
 Give direction to life and bring joy.
 Learn satisfaction towards life.
 Attain peace in life.
 Develop character.
 Preserve our culture and heritage,
 Bring changes in behaviour towards positive thoughts.
 Promote the peace and harmony in the society.

What are Basic Human Values?

Basic human values refer to those values which are at the core of being human. The values which are
considered basic inherent values in humans include truth, honesty, loyalty, love, peace, etc. because they
bring out the fundamental goodness of human beings and society at large. Further, since these values are
unifying in nature and cut across individual’s social, cultural, religious and sectarian interests; they are also
considered universal, timeless and eternal applying to all human beings.

How values are different from norms?

Values and norms are different. Norm refers to a relatively specific behaviour as per social customs and it
is obligatory. On the other hand, values are matter of choice. For example, honesty cannot be a norm
because it may not be chosen to be followed. Further, once a particular value is internalized by an
individual, it becomes a norm for him / her for making decisions, judgements, preferences and choices.

How values are different from Morals?

Morals are taught by the society to the individual while values can be cultivated from within. Morals act as
motivation for leading a good life, while values act as intuition. Further, while morals are deep rooted,
values may keep changing from time to time and as per need.

Nature of Values:

From the definitions of ‘VALUE’, certain most important things regarding values are noted. These
are:

1. Values are not feelings, but they are concepts.

 2. Values are express feelings but they are more than feelings.
3. Values exist in the mind, and, are independent of Public affirmation.
4. Values are absolute but they are dimensional. That is, values are a criteria for judging the degree
of goodness of badness, Tightness or wrongness.
5. Values are concepts heavily weighted with emotions and influence the child’s selection from
variable modes, means and ends of action.
6. Values are primarily, ethical, social and subjective. Therefore, they are strong dispositions of
human behaviour than concepts with less heavy emotional weightage.
7. Values are based on respect for human dignity. They assume that personal integrity is the nucleus
around which ethical community and global stewardship resolve.
8. Values are the very essence of human life.
9. Values are essential for a fair and equitable community which reflects our respect as well as
responsibility for the global environment.
10. Values are cross-cultural and are essential for the development of community and global
citizenship.
11. Values are that in which people are interested.
12. Values are the things of worship.
13. Value is the product of feeling, set and action.
14. Values are the product of human spirit and not of intellect.
15. Values never change. It is only the perceptions of these that undergo changes as a result of ever-
evolving human consciousness.
16. Values act as forceful tools for the cultivation of social good.
17. Values are caught through literature.
18. Value is a motivating force behind the individual’s thought, emotion and action.
19. Values are integrated into personality and many times they act as barriers to the acceptance of new
change or innovations.
20. Every value is reflected in a person’s reactions.
21. Values influence every aspect of educational process.

Human Values in Law

Law, at its very foundation, is conceived and derived from values. These values are such as inform and
underpin a rational and fair expectation of how power should be organised, exercised and controlled at a
private and public level.

These values find their expression not only in the formal law, but also in societal expectations, behaviour
and actions (which may, in time, also come to be reflected or incorporated within the law, but which, in
any event, do not require formal legal expression for society to understand their correctness or
importance). This is not, however, to say that these values, or indeed that the laws, rules, principles and
expectations derived from, and reflecting such values, are merely specific cultural manifestations, or that
they are culturally or jurisdictionally derived. It may well be the case that such values form part of a
culturally-specific heritage. But they are far more than that. At least some transcend cultural boundaries.
They lie at the heart of every individual, and at the heart of society – as human values.

The essential human values most particularly relevant to public law are: a rejection of unfairness and an
insistence on essential equality; respect for the integrity and dignity of the individual; and mercy. Each
goes to the core of what we understand humanity and the individual to be, and to what is expected when
power is exercised by or against individuals. Dignity can perhaps be seen to drive the soul [1]; it lies at the
foundation of self and ultimately informs the rejection of unfairness. These values find expression in the
rules, principles, precepts and norms developed by society and by the law. But the nature of these values is
such as to make it necessary to recognise the limits of text in their expression, drawn ultimately, as they
are, from the human condition, and the intuition and sensibility therein.

The law, in its creativity and flexibility, has drawn upon these values in numerous manners and forms. The
concern of public law to prevent the exercise of power which is arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable can
be seen to reflect a concern with rejecting unfairness. This is the reasonable expectation of each individual
that power will not be exercised against her or him in a manner that fails to respect her or his integrity and
dignity. The same can be seen in the concern of private law to prevent unconscionability and to deter
behaviour that is antithetical to honest, reasonable, mutually beneficial commercial relations.

There is an important balance to be struck in this respect. Legal systems and societies cannot be built or
sustained by reference only to generally expressed values. Neither, however, can they be built upon strict
textually-rooted rules alone. Rather, a balance must be struck of rules, principles, precepts, norms and
values. These are not clearly identifiable separate vehicles, but expressions along a gradation of
particularity. The proper balance to be struck must recognise the requirement that rule and principle
conform to moral standards as the gauge of the law’s flexibility and as its avenue for growth, and in order
to accommodate changes in society’s conceptions of the application of unchanged values. The balance
must also recognise the danger of absence of adequate rules that may confound law by a drift into a
formless void of sentiment and intuition.
 Ethics

Ethics, also called moral philosophy, the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad, right
and wrong. The term is also applied to any system or theory of moral values or principles.

Ethics deals with such questions at all levels. Its subject consists of the fundamental issues of
practical decision making, and its major concerns include the nature of ultimate value and the standards by
which human actions can be judged right or wrong.

The terms ethics and morality are closely related. It is now common to refer to ethical judgments or to
ethical principles where it once would have been more accurate to speak of moral judgments or moral
principles. These applications are an extension of the meaning of ethics. In earlier usage, the term referred
not to morality itself but to the field of study, or branch of inquiry, that has morality as its subject matter.
In this sense, ethics is equivalent to moral philosophy.

Although ethics has always been viewed as a branch of philosophy, its all-embracing practical nature links
it with many other areas of study, including anthropology, biology, economics, history, politics, sociology,
and theology. Yet, ethics remains distinct from such disciplines because it is not a matter of factual
knowledge in the way that the sciences and other branches of inquiry are. Rather, it has to do with
determining the nature of normative theories and applying these sets of principles to practical moral
problems.

At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how people make decisions and lead
their lives. Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral
philosophy. The term is derived from the Greek word ethos which can mean custom, habit, character or
disposition.

Ethics covers the following dilemmas:

 how to live a good life

 our rights and responsibilities
 the language of right and wrong
 moral decisions - what is good and bad?

Our concepts of ethics have been derived from religions, philosophies and cultures. They infuse debates on
topics like abortion, human rights and professional conduct.

Approaches to ethics

Philosophers nowadays tend to divide ethical theories into three areas: metaethics, normative ethics and
applied ethics.

 Meta-ethics deals with the nature of moral judgement. It looks at the origins and meaning of ethical
principles.
 Normative ethics is concerned with the content of moral judgements and the criteria for what is right
or wrong.
 Applied ethics looks at controversial topics like war, animal rights and capital punishment

What is Ethics?
Ethics is based on well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do,
usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.

Some years ago, sociologist Raymond Baumhart asked business people, "What does ethics mean to you?"
Among their replies were the following:

"Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong."

"Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs."
"Being ethical is doing what the law requires."
"Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts."
"I don't know what the word means."

These replies might be typical of our own. The meaning of "ethics" is hard to pin down, and the views
many people have about ethics are shaky.

Good people as well as good actions

Ethics is not only about the morality of particular courses of action, but it's also about the goodness of
individuals and what it means to live a good life. Virtue Ethics is particularly concerned with the moral
character of human beings.