7 Technique of Developing human Values

Learning Outcomes
Introduction
Meaning of human values Need of human values
Sources of human values
Ethical Approaches or theories in value system
Summary

1. LEARNING OUTCOMES

After studying this module, students will be able to understand:
Meaning and features of human values Need of human values
Sources of human values
Ethical approaches of human values

MODULE 6: TECHNIQUES OF DEVELOPING HUMAN VALUES INTRODUCTION:

Several people have many opinions and preconceived notions in the form of values and attitudes. They often influence our behavior. We have values about work, equality, authority, self-respect, freedom, honesty, obedience and other matter. These human values provide the basic foundation for understanding a person’s personality, perceptions and attitude. No doubt, values not only help in achieving success but also make success more enduring and lasting irrespective of individual, community, organization or country.

MEANING OF VALUES:

Edward Spranger defines the values as “the constellation of likes, dislikes, viewpoints, inner inclination, rational and irrational judgments, prejudices and association pattern that determines a person’s view of the world”

The connotation of the term “Value” is the quality of anything that renders it desirable of something that is prized, held in respect or esteemed. The dominant values give meaning to a man’s life, making them in center around which behavior revolves, make up the type of person he will be. According to Allport, “Value is a belief upon which a man acts by preferences.” Infact, authors found it very difficult to put the term on firm conceptual footing.

Value describes a thing’s worth, desirability, usefulness or qualities which influence these judgments. Economists refer value to the purchasing of goods or services to acquire something else. In general, value connotes the principles or standards that people use, individually or collectively, to make judgments about what is important or valuable in their lives. According to the Oxford dictionary, value means “Worth”. The encyclopedia of social sciences refers to values, as interest, pleasures, likes, preferences, duties, moral obligations, desires, wants, needs and many other modalities of social orientation.

In other words, values represent basic convictions or enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.

Features of Values

Values are at the core of personality and are a powerful force affecting behavior.
Values contain a judgmental element in that they carry an individual’s ideas as to what is right, or desirable.
Values have both content and intensity attributes. The content attribute indicates that a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is important. The intensity attribute specifies how important it is.
Values are not fixed, but they change over time.
Many values are relatively stable and enduring. This is because of the way in which they are originally learned.

All of us have a hierarchy of values that forms our value system. But everyone does not hold the same values.

NEED FOR HUMAN VALUES:

In philosopher’s vision of human excellence, there exist a firm faith that when heart and hand work with head, there will be completeness in growth and development of individuals. Since Vedic times, the overall trend of intellectual transactions was based on religious philosophy, thoughts and ideas which were predominantly value-oriented. Value or moral education formed an intrinsic part of education and learners observed the prescribed code of conduct throughout their lives. But today many people differ and adopt shallow, meager and unethical means for success thus becomes miserable.

In spite of the ever-growing wonders of science and technology, we are living in a turbulent and worried world under the dark shadow of war and annihilation. Our growing progress in controlling our material world has not been matched by similar advance in human character and virtues. Many of the philosophers and educationists feel that human–values becomes inevitable all walks of life, both public and personal for the following some reasons:

Persistence of classes, racism, casteism and discrimination of various types.
A decline in the strength and integrity of the family and alarming increase in separation, divorce and conflicts.
A decline in respect for parents, teachers and other civil and legal authorities.
Increase in the aggressive and destructive behavior in the family, school, streets, playfield and entertainment centers.
Complete lack of purpose and direction pervading today’s youth resulting in unsatisfactory academic performance and other social evils.
An increasing destruction of animal and plant life and the pollution of environment.
A growing desire for sense objects leading to exploitation of one section of society by another.
Increasing materialism Cut throat competition Duplication and privacy. Spiraling prices
Mounting cost of living High ambitions
Carry on philosophy
Search for quick results
Improper conduct being equated with dynamism Ethical muteness
Vicious cycle of grease payments Politicking instead of politics
Easy and short cut oriented life style
Mounting restlessness and self-helplessness Spreading suicidal heroism instinct
Political corruption
Access to more than sufficient money, technology and information More inclination to westernization synonym modernization
Success even at the cost of characterlessness
Apparent dominance of materialistic life style over spiritualism Expanding individualism more than collectivism
Prevalent narrow mindedness, short-run perspective and speedy rise motive result into frustration, failure and make one to go for unethical means
Wide disparities in ownership of resources. Wealth collection without work
Business without morality
Automation and mechanization of production without humanity Worship without sacrifice
These issues laud the need for value-orientation, whatever may be the sources.

SOURCES OF HUMAN VALUES:

Values are believed to be hereditary and genetically determined say about 40% and rest is environment affected. The individual’s major environmental forces include: family influences, child adopt good or bad ethical standards shown by parents, elders, etc. peer influence, same age, status person while studying, playing and working together considerably shape one another’s ethical beliefs and attitudes, situational factors, values and ethical considerations may change with peculiar situations like question of livelihood arise, life risk involved etc. The three major sources are culture, religion and constitution.

Culture

Culture is the pursuit of perfection in every walk of life. It is sweetness and light. The purity of heart, word and deed makes a cultured man. Our heart should cultivate feelings like compassion, gratitude and friendliness. Our intellect should cultivate knowledge and attain wisdom. Our hands should serve all and do well to all. Thus, culture, in a sense, consists of bad and hands which help ever and hurt never. There are some core values, which cut across the barriers of time and place. They are cherished universally. These core values may be termed as truth, righteousness, peace, love and non-violence. Under these core universal values one may include such other sub-values as reverence for life, reverence for family, open-mindedness, spirit of tolerance, sympathy, kindness, generosity, compassion and so on. The world is a rich masaic of cultures. Each particular culture cherishes some unique values. To be a complete human being one should identify such values and make a collection of them to assimilate, internalize and practice them.

Cultural values are complex and primarily intrinsic. The fundamental values of a society developed over time into ideologies or world views, including ideas about reality, human nature and purpose etc. Although, often justified by argument, these values are often carried in rituals, customs or narratives that are repeated and taken for granted. These values are highly resistant to change because they are seen as absolute.

Religion

Entomologically the word religion is composed of Re-legen, which in Greek terminology signifies something that binds. Religion binds human beings together. In actual practice, religion prescribes duties of man towards his fellow human beings and towards God. Religion postulates a system of faith in super human power, a divine power, an ultimate reality named as God. Religion further leads man to his ultimate goal, which one may call as perfection or self-realisation or beatitude or liberation.

Any religion has five functional aspects which are: (a) the life and personality of its founder, and its seers, saints and sages (b) metaphysics and cosmology (c) the ethics (d) the rituals (e) the mysticism. When we look to religion as a source of values, we mainly draw upon its two function aspects. These are: (i) the life and personality of its founder and its seers, saints and sages and (ii) its ethics. Similarly, the ethical principles are common to all religions. All religions advocate truth, righteousness, peace, love and reverence for all life. All the religions emphasise self-control, prayer, devotion to God and love for all living beings.

Constitution

The constitution of a country is a basic source of deriving values which are to be included in educational institutions. Almost, all the existing constitutions of various countries of world highlight the values of democracy, equality, liberty and world peace. These are the values, which find a place of pride in the United Nations Charter. The values enshrined in the Constitution of India are stated in its Preamble:

We, the people of India, have solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign Democratic Republic and to secure all its citizen; Justice- Social, Economic and Political, Liberty- of the thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, Equality- of status and opportunity and Fraternity-assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the Nation.

In these listed values, justice occupies the first place, followed by liberty, equality and unity of the nation. Even so, all the items listed from a totality among which a balance and harmony is sought to be preserved.

ETHICAL APPROACHES OR THEORIES:

In ethics, normative theories propose some principle or principles for distinguishing right actions from wrong actions. These theories can, for convenience, be divided into two kinds: consequentialist and non- consequentialist. According to consequentialist theories, the moral rightness of an action is determined solely by its results. If its consequences are good, then the act is right; if they are bad, the act is wrong. Consequentialists (moral theorists who adopt this approach) determine what is right by weighting the ratio of good to bad that an action will produce. The right act is the one that produces (or will probably produce) at least as great a ratio of good to evil as any other course of action open to the agent.

One question that arises here is, Consequences for whom? Should one consider the consequences only for oneself? Or the consequences for everyone affected? One of the most important consequentialist theory, utiliatarism, holds that one must take into account everyone affected by the action. But agree that rightness and wrongness are solely a function of an action’s result.

By contrast, non-consequentialist(or deontological) theories contend that right and wrong are determined by more than the likely consequences of an action. Non-consequentialists do not necessarily deny that consequences are morally significant, but they believe that other factors are also relevant to the moral assessment of an action. For example: a non-consequentialist would holds that for Sham to break his promise to Ram is wrong simply because it has bad results (Ram’s hurt feelings, Sham’s damaged reputation, and so on) but because of the inherent character of the act itself. Even if more good than bad were to come from Sham’s breaking the promise, a non-consequentialist might still view it as wrong. What matters is the nature of the act in question, not just its results. This idea will become clearer in this chapter as we examine some specific non-consequentialist principles and theories.

The theories (philosophies) are ideal moral perspectives that provide individuals with abstract principles for guiding their social existence. The following are the five approaches or theories of ethics:

(i) The Utilitarian Approach (Weighing Social Cost and Benefits): Jenny Bentham (1748-1832) considered as the founder of traditional Utilitarian Approach. An action is right from an ethical point of view if and only if the sum total of utilities produced by that act is greater than the sum total of utilities produced by any other act the agent could have performed in its place i.e. the principle assumed that all the benefits and costs of an action can be measured as a common numerical scale and then added to or subtracted from each other.

(ii) The Deontological Approach (Right & Duties Approach): Other philosophers and ethicists suggest that the ethical action is one that best protects and respects the moral rights of those affected. This approach starts from the belief that humans have a dignity based on their human nature per se or on their ability to choose freely what they do with their lives. On the basis on such dignity, they have a right to be treated as ends and not merely as means, to other ends.

(iii) The Egalitarianism Approach (Fairness and Justice and Equality Approach):

According to the egalitarianism all benefits and burdens should be distributed by the following formula “Every person should be given exactly equal share of societies or a group’s benefits and burdens”. Today we use this idea to say that ethical actions treat all human beings equally or unequally, then fairly based on some standard that is defensible.

(iv) The Libertarianism Approach (Common Good Approach): The life in community is good in itself and our actions should contribute to that life. This approach suggests that the interlocking relationships of society are the basis of ethical reasoning and that respect and compassion for all others especially the vulnerable are requirements of such reasoning. This approach also merits attention to the common conditions that are important to the welfare of everyone.

(v) The Virtue Approach: A very ancient approach to ethics is that ethical actions ought to be consistent with certain ideal virtues that provide for the full development of our humanity. These virtues are dispositions and habit that enable us to act according to the highest potential of our character and on behalf of attribute values like truth, beauty, honesty, courage, compassion, generosity, tolerance, love, fidelity, integrity, fairness, self control, and prudence which are all examples of virtues.

SUMMARY:

Several people have many opinions and preconceived notions in the form of values and attitudes. They often influence our behavior. We have values about work, equality, authority, self-respect, freedom, honesty, obedience and other matter. These human values provide the basic foundation for understanding a person’s personality, perceptions and attitude. Values have both content and intensity attributes. The content attribute indicates that a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is important. The intensity attribute specifies how important it is.

Values are believed to be hereditary and genetically determined say about 40% and rest is environment affected. The three major sources are culture, religion and constitution. Culture is the pursuit of perfection in every walk of life. It is sweetness and light. The purity of heart, word and deed makes a cultured man. Our heart should cultivate feelings like compassion, gratitude and friendliness. Our intellect should cultivate knowledge and attain wisdom. Our hands should serve all and do well to all. Thus, culture, in a sense, consists of bad and hands which help ever and hurt never. There are some core values, which cut across the barriers of time and place. They are cherished universally. Religion binds human beings together. In actual practice, religion prescribes duties of man towards his fellow human beings and towards God. Religion postulates a system of faith in super human power, a divine power, an ultimate reality named as God. Religion further leads man to his ultimate goal, which one may call as perfection or self-realisation or beatitude or liberation. The constitution of a country is a basic source of deriving values which are to be included in educational institutions. Almost, all the existing constitutions of various countries of world highlight the values of democracy, equality, liberty and world peace.

In ethics, normative theories propose some principle or principles for distinguishing right actions from wrong actions. These theories can, for convenience, be divided into two kinds: consequentialist and non- consequentialist. According to consequentialist theories, the moral rightness of an action is determined solely by its results. If its consequences are good, then the act is right; if they are bad, the act is wrong. By contrast, non-consequentialist(or deontological) theories contend that right and wrong are determined by more than the likely consequences of an action. Non-consequentialists do not necessarily deny that consequences are morally significant, but they believe that other factors are also relevant to the moral assessment of an action. The theories (philosophies) are ideal moral perspectives that provide individuals with abstract principles for guiding their social existence.

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REFERENCES:

Pramod Sharma, “Business Ethics and Corporate Values: An Indian Perspective” Ravitanaya Publications, Shimla, 2017
S.K Bhatia, “Business Ethics and Corporate Governance” Deep & Deep Publications, New Delhi, 2004
A.C. Fernando, “Business Ethics and Corporate Governance” Pearson Publication, 2013
Harris & Hartman, “Organizational Behavior” Jaico Publication House, 2002
French, Bell & Vohra, “Organization Development” Pearson Prentice Hall Publication, 2009
S B Gogate, “Human Values & Professional Ethics” Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 2011