Values

Definition (Clyde Kluckhohn and others)
Definition (John Dewey)
Definition (Ferdinand Tönnies)
Definition (Talcott Parsons)
Definition (Harold Lasswell and Abraham Kaplan)
Definition (Charles Morris)
Definition (Robin M. Williams Jr.)
Ddefinition (Guy Rocher)
Definition (Hans Ozbekhan)

Classification (Plato)
Classification (Eduard Spranger)
Classification (Robert S. Lynd)
Classification (Harold Lasswell and Abraham Kaplan)
Classification (Nicholas Rescher)
Classification (John Finnis)

Definition of value orientations (Florence R. Kluckhohn and Fred L. Strodtbeck)
Classification of value orientations (Florence R. Kluckhohn and Fred L. Strodtbeck)

Values and problems (Robert S. Lynd)
Values as means and ends (John Dewey)
Evaluation of values (Richard Neutra)

Definition

[1951] C. Kluckhohn and others in Talcott Parsons and Edward Shils, Toward a General Theory of Action
"Value implies a code or a standard which has some persistence through time. or, more broadly put, which organizes a system of action."
“A value is a conception, explicit or implicit, distinctive of an individual or characteristic of a group, of the desirable which influences the selection from available modes, means and ends of action.”
"Affective ('desirable'), cognitive ('conception'), and conative ('selection') elements are all essential to this notion of value." (p. 395)
"A value is not just a preference but is a preference which is felt and/or considered to be justified - 'morally' or by reasoning or by aesthetic judgments, usually by two or all three of these." (p. 396)
"Values are ideas formulating action commitments." (p. 396)
(Part 4, Chapter 2)

[1916] John Dewey, Democracy and Education
“The term ‘value’ has two quite different meanings. On the one hand it denotes the attitude of prizing a thing, finding it worthwhile, for its own sake, or intrinsically. To value in this sense is to appreciate.
But to value also means a distinctively intellectual act - an operation of comparing and judging - to valuate.”
(Chapter 18, pp. 248-249)

[1971] Ferdinand Tönnies, On Sociology : Pure, Applied, and Empirical
“By VALUES, we understand real or ideal objects as far as they are affirmed, that is, approved, appreciated, loved, admired, revered, or regarded and conceived of with other expression of love, affection, and pleasure.”
(from "Einfuehrung in die Soziologie", Stuttgart 1931 - Book 3, Chapter 1)

[1960] Talcott Parsons, Structure and Process in Modern Societies
“I use the term ‘value’ in a technical sense for the most general directional commitment of persons to action in a social system.” (p. 174)
“Values are in the first instance commitments of the individual personality - they are in some sense ways for him to live with his fellows in society.
As such they must be ‘grounded’ in three main directions,
- first in his existential beliefs about the world,
- second in his own motivational needs as a personality and
- third in his relations to others in the society.” (p. 174)

[1950] Harold D. Lasswell and Abraham Kaplan, Power and Society
“A VALUE is a desired event - a goal event.
That X values Y means that X acts so as to bring about the consummation of Y.”
(Chapter II, p. 16)
"The act of valuing we call ‘valuation’, and we speak of the object or situation desired as ‘the value’." (Chapter II, p. 16)
"Values are the goal-events of act of valuation." (Chapter IV, p. 55)

[1964] Charles Morris, Signification and Significance. A Study of the Relations of Signs and Values, The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970
“An organism may be said to exhibit positive preferential behaviour to an object or situation if it acts so to maintain the presence of this object or situation, or to construct this object or situation if it is not present. It exhibits negative preferential behaviour if it seeks to move away from this object or situation, or to destroy or prevent the occurrence of this object or situation.” (Chapter 2, p. 16)
"Since the life process depends on the selection or rejection of certain objects or situations, preferential behaviour (positive or negative) is a basic phenomenon of life. I have proposed that axiology (as the study of “value”) be considered as the study of preferential behaviour.” (Chapter 2, p. 17)
(Chapter 2 : Value as preferential behaviour)

[1968] Robin M. William jr, The Concept of Values, in The International Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences, vol. 16, The Macmillan Co. & The Free Press, New York
“One of the more widely accepted definitions in the social sciences literature considers value to be conceptions of the desirable, influencing selective behaviour.”
“In ordinary speech the term ‘value’ is used interchangeably in two senses.
In one meaning we refer to the specific evaluation of any object.
The second meaning of value refers to the criteria, or standards in terms of which evaluations are made.” (p. 283)

[1968] Guy Rocher, Introduction à la sociologie générale, Seuil, Paris [Vol. 1]
"Nous dirons de la valeur qu'elle est une manière d'être ou d'agir qu'une personne ou une collectivité reconnaissent comme idéale et qui rend désirables ou estimables les êtres ou les conduites auquels elle est attribuée." (Chapter 3, p. 72)

[1988] Hans Ozbekhan in Eriche Jantsch (editor), Perspectives of Planning, Part I : "Toward a General Theory of Planning"
“By values I shall mean the dominant, historically evolved commitments of a culture or society. Values define the way of life as well as the quality of life - or rather, the style of life - in such cultures or societies.” (p. 80)
“Values are the dominant commitments of society or the motivating preferences of an individual. They are operationally governed by rules or standards called norms.” (p. 152)

Classification

[c. 375 B.C.] Plato, The Republic
Intrinsic Value : “How would you arrange goods - are there not some which we welcome for their own sakes, and independently of their consequences as, for example, harmless pleasures and enjoyments, which delight us at the time, although nothing follows from them?”
Intermediate Value : “Is there not also a second class of goods, such as knowledge, sight, health, with are desirable not only in themselves, but also for their results?”
Instrumental Value : “And would you not recognize a third class such as gymnastic, and the care of the sick, and the physician’s art; also the various ways of money-making - these do us good but we regard them as disagreeable; and no one would choose them for their own sake, but only for the sake of some reward or result which flows from them?”
(Book II - Section 357)

[1928] Eduard Spranger, Types of Men
        - Theoretical (knowledge, truth)
         - Economic (utility)
         - Aesthetic (beauty, harmony)
         - Social (love, loyalty)
         - Political (power)
         - Religious (totality and unity of meaning)
(from Part II : The Ideally Basic Types of Individuality)

[1939] Robert S. Lynd, Knowledge for What? Grove Press, New York, 1964
Cravings of the human personality:
         - 1. own physical and emotional tempo and rhythm
         - 2. growth and realization of personal powers
         - 3. meaning in activity
         - 4. physical and psychological security
         - 5. novelty
         - 6. rivalry and competition
         - 7. mutuality, sharing of purposes, feeling and action
         - 8. coherence in the direction and meaning of experience
         - 9. freedom and diversity of expression
(from Chapter 5, pp. 193-197)

[1950] Harold D. Lasswell and Abraham Kaplan, Power and Society
Welfare Values : "those whose possession to a certain degree is necessary condition for the maintenance of the physical activity of the person."
- Well-being: the health and safe of the organism
- Wealth: the income, services and goods accruing to the individual
- Skill: proficiency in any practice, whether art or craft, trade or profession
- Enlightenment: knowledge, insight and information concerning personal and cultural relations.
Deference Values : "those that consist in being taken into consideration (in the acts of others and of the self)."
- Power
- Respect: status, honor, recognition, prestige
- Rectitude: virtue, goodness, righteousness
- Affection: love and friendship.
(from Chapter IV, pp. 55-56)

[1969] Nicholas Rescher in Kurt Baier and Nicholas Rescher, Values and the Future
1. Self-oriented values (health, security, self-reliance, self-fulfillment, industriousness, competence, etc,)
2. Group-oriented values (personal responsibility, friendliness, loyalty, generosity, fair play, etc.)
3. Society-oriented values (equality, justice, liberty, order, fairness, etc.)
4. Nation-oriented values (national freedom and independence, national prosperity, etc.)
5. Mankind-oriented values (peace, human dignity, etc,)
6. Environment-oriented values (aesthetic values, environmental beauty)
(from pp. 94-95)

John Finnis in Peter Singer (editor), Ethics
- A. Life (physical-mental health, freedom from pain, vitality)
- B.   Knowledge (as a means and as an end)
- C.   Play (enjoyment in performing)
- D.   Aesthetic Experience (the beautiful form and the appreciation of its beauty)
- E.   Sociability (friendship, peace and harmony)
- F.   Practical Reasonableness (acting intelligently and reasonably)
- G.   Religion (cosmic, everlasting order and reason)
(from pp. 87-97)

Definition of value orientations

[1961] Florence R. Kluckhohn and Fred L. Strodtbeck, Variations in Value Orientations, Greenwood Press Publishers, Westport, Connecticut
“Value orientations are complex but definitively patterned (rank-ordered) principles, resulting from the transactional interplay of three analytically distinguishable elements of the evaluative process - the cognitive, the affective, and the directive elements - which give order and direction to the ever-flowing stream of human acts and thoughts as these relate to the solution of ‘common human’ problems.”
(Chapter I, p. 4)

Classification of value orientations

[1961] Florence R. Kluckhohn and Fred L. Strodtbeck, Variations in Value Orientations, Greenwood Press Publishers, Westport, Connecticut
- Human Nature
     Evil - Mixture Good and Evil - Good
     Mutable – Immutable
- Man-Nature
     Subjugation to Nature - Harmony with Nature - Mastery over Nature
- Time
     Past - Present - Future
- Activity
     Being (satisfaction of desires) - Being in Becoming (containment of desires) - Doing (expression in activity)
- Relational
    Linearity (lineal relationships to ancestors and descendants) - Collaterality (laterally extended relationships to siblings, mates, equals, etc.) - Individualism (self-centred relationships between autonomous individuals)
(from Chapter I, pp. 10-20)

Values and problems

[1939] Robert S. Lynd, Knowledge for What? Grove Press, New York, 1964
“Values are always present in the initial selection of a problem.
If they are not overt and announced, they are none the less latent and tacitly accepted.”
(Chapter 5, p. 184)

Values as means and ends

[1949] John Dewey in Ray Lepley (editor), Value : A Cooperative Inquiry, Columbia University Press, New York
“The idea that things as ends can be valued, cherished, held dear apart from equally serious valuing of the things that are the means of attaining them is more than a fallacy in theory. The man who says he deeply or intensely values some ‘end’ and then shows himself indifferent to, neglectful of, the things upon which the ‘end’ depends is either a liar intent upon deceiving others or is badly self-deceived. In spite of the currency of theory as to the difference, with respect to ‘intrinsic’ value, between things that are means and things that are ends, the conduct of decent and competent people is better than their professed theoretical beliefs. They manifest their devotion to ‘ends’ by the patient and constant care given to ‘means’." (p. 70)

Evaluation of values

[1978, First edition 1954] Richard Neutra, Survival through Design
“The common denominator, the proper gauge of value, lies ultimately in biological returns, i.e. the aids and harms to the survival of a given community and to its organic membership.”
(Chapter 46, pp. 370-371)

[Home] [Top]

Texts

Resources