[Neurons] 2022 Neurons #47 INSTRUMENTAL AND BEYOND

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2022 Neurons #47

November 14, 2022

Values Series #5

 

INSTRUMENTAL AND BEYOND

 

When we distinguish values so that we recognize there are instrumental
values (means values) and there are end values, we introduce two very
different ways of living.  The first way is what most people on Planet Earth
know and do-they live for instrumental values.  This creates a certain way
of thinking.  When your values are instrumental, you value objects and
experiences as important strictly for what you get from them.  Results!
That's what you want and that's what you focus on-getting results.  Getting
whatever it is that you are valuing.

 

That's good!  For things that are not valuable in and of themselves, but for
what they lead to, this is good.  Instrumental values answers the question,
"What is this X good for?"  "Why should I care about X, what will it do for
me?"  You have to know the answers to these questions in order to know how
to cope with everyday life.   If getting to work is important, then whatever
means you use to get there, you can value.   Bus, car, train, subway,
walking, riding a bike, hitching a ride, etc.   These are instrumental
values. 

                                                          

Does that mean you cannot appreciate and value the bus, a car, the train,
etc. and value it for itself?   No, of course you could.  And it never hurts
to value an instrumental value and see its inherent value.  But if that's
all you do, then your perspective is short and shallow.  When you save money
for an emergency, it is an instrumental value and you can appreciate the
money for itself as representing a safety net.  But to think of money as an
end value almost always creates an addiction, a compulsion, and a neurotic
need.  Not good.

 

To only live in a world of instrumental values means that everything and
everybody is just a means to an end.  If that's all you have in terms of
values, then everything and every person has a price.  And worse, no person
is inherently valuable.  Talk about a de-humanizing way to live!  Thinking
that way means that every person you meet, you evaluate, "What can this
person do for me?"  "What benefit can I derive from this person?"  And if
the answer is "none," they you will see and feel that that person has no
value-no value to you.  This is how we begin to devalue someone,
de-personalize someone, and de-humanize someone.

 

Instrumental values are good for what they are good for-getting you to a
valued end.  But what end?  Ah, now we are moving into the highest values,
the being values.  These are the values that are not instrumental, but an
end value.  And that means the experience you have with them is being.


 

What is this being state or experience?  One way to understand it is to
contrast it to two other states-doing and having.  "Being" refers to being
human, being a human being-a person who is more than, and different from,
what you can do, say, think, feel, relate, etc.  You were a human being at
birth before any of your cognitive, emotional, and behavioral capacities
were developed.  Another understanding of being arises when you realize that
it is out of being that you become.  This means that "being" is dynamic,
fluid, and always in process.  You are always becoming.  In fact, every day
our being grows an develops (or degenerates).

 

Now the being-values that Maslow and others identified can be used both
instrumentally and for being.  Truth is valuable as a means to understand
what's real and is an inherent value.  Truth sets you free, and truth in
itself is beautiful and satisfying to the mind and soul.  Justice is
similarly both an instrumental value and an end-value.  So also with all of
the being-values: meaning, knowledge, excellence, making a difference,
contribution, altruism, equality, etc.

 

In a being-value, you stop striving.  You are not thinking about gaining,
winning, defeating, conquering, developing, climbing a mountain, and so on.
Instead you are thinking about the wonder and mystery and beauty of an
experience or person.  You rest in that value, just appreciating, just
admiring, adoring, etc.

 

What is the purpose of the end-values?  That question is mostly a silIy
question.  If it is an end-value, then that's the end.  The value is
inherent.  It is not for anything more than itself.  Of course, the American
(and Western) way of thinking can hardly process that.  We are so quick to
ask, "To what end?"  "For what purpose?"  In being-ness we stop asking that.
We stop asking, "What should I do?"   That's because the answer is, "Just
be."

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

ISNS Executive Director

P.O. Box 8

Clifton Colorado 81520 USA

(970) 523-7877

drhall at acsol.net  



 

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