[Neurons] 2022 Neurons #42 VALUES -- WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2022 Neurons #42

October 17, 2022

Values Series #1

 

VALUES-

WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?

 

If that question, Why are values important? strikes you as redundant and
self-evident, it should!  After all, we define a value as "that which is
important."  And yet the question is not only a legitimate question, but a
deep question that cannot be answered quickly or superficially.  Answering
the question takes us into the heart of our psychological nature as human
beings and takes us into the realm of ontology (being-ness).  More
pragmatically, it also takes a person into very personal questions such as,
"What are you living for?"  "What motivates you to devote your energy,
effort, time, and money into X?"

 

Values, like most other things human, occur at multiple levels.  At the
lowest levels, we value the items that allow us to survive and feel
safe-food, water, shelter, sleep, sex, exercise, money, etc.  Answering the
question as to why are they important is easy.  These are the items that
allow us to survive, thrive, feel good, and be ready to engage in the
adventure of life.  But why is that important?  Ah, now we have moved up to
the next logical level, we have self-reflexively considered the why of the
first why.

 

Now that first area of values offers its own challenges.   And primarily
because those items are real, tangible, and empirical items.  You can see
them, hear them, feel them, smell them, and taste them.  Unwittingly that
has seduced most of us into thinking that "values" are externally real
"things."  But they are not.  You may value an item that you can
see-hear-and-feel, but the actual value is intangible-living and feeling
alive to life.  Another seduction: You might over-value any one of these
tangible things.  You may semantically load it up with too many values and
try to transform it into "the purpose of life."  Many people do that.  They
make food "the purpose of life," or sex, or money, or just about anything
that contributes to survival.

 

The next levels of values, using Maslow's hierarchy of needs, involve the
things we value in others, in family, friends, and society.  Maslow named
them safety and security, love and affection, worth and dignity.  The values
in these levels arise because we are social beings and we need each other.
In fact, all of the higher intelligent and pack animals also have these
needs/ values.  As a social group, they provide protection and
stabilization, bonding and attachment, and worth and recognition.  I love
what Maslow said about that.  "Be a good animal; have healthy appetites for
these needs."  Yet in the end, you have only achieved the status of a good
animal.

 

We value the needs of these social levels, even though they are less
tangible, because with these, we not only survive, we thrive.  Psychological
research in the past hundred years have demonstrated repeatedly just how
much we need stability (safety, security) in order to be psychologically
healthy.  If you are insecure in your world, you will tend to be on guard,
defensive, non-trusting, suspicious, paranoid, etc.  Not good.  If you do
not have secure attachments with other people, you will lack the social
closeness and bonding that makes you a good friend, a good parent, a good
employee, a good leader.  You will again, be defensive, over-sensitive to
sleights, untrusting, feel like a victim, blame, etc.  And if you do not
have a sense of your social value and dignity in your groups and
communities, you will never feel "good enough," always feel that you have to
do more, have more, be more in order to be okay.

 

So what we need, the requirements for physical and psychological
well-being-these necessities are the first things that we value in life.
This means that you and I have inside of us the intrinsic foundation for a
set of values.  That was one of Maslow's major discoveries (more about that
later in this series).

 

The final level in the hierarchy of needs are all lumped into one
category-the self-actualizing needs.  These are the things necessary for we
humans to be fully human, to move beyond being a good animal, and being a
good human.  Here we have needs for knowledge and meaning, for beauty and
order, for giving love and making a difference, for pursuing excellence and
contributing, etc.  You do not need these to survive, you don't need these
to be psychologically healthy-you need these to be inwardly healthy, or we
may say, spiritually healthy-healthy in your spirit and heart.

 

Why do we need values?  To survive, to thrive, and to become all that you
can become, to unleash your highest potentials and live life to the full.
Sounds pretty important to me and yet ... we have a value-crisis in today's
world, the subject of the next post.

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

ISNS Executive Director

P.O. Box 8

Clifton Colorado 81520 USA

(970) 523-7877

drhall at acsol.net  



 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20221017/93634aec/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.wmz
Type: application/x-ms-wmz
Size: 284914 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20221017/93634aec/attachment-0001.wmz>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 96537 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20221017/93634aec/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: oledata.mso
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 1618207 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20221017/93634aec/attachment-0001.obj>