The Being of Values Juruś, Dariusz
Relacje Międzykulturowe (Online),
12/2022, Letnik:
7, Številka:
2(12)
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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In this paper I present three main approaches to the problem of the being of values by discussing objectivism, subjectivism and relationism referring to historical positions. I conclude that ...axiological discourse, when reduced to the horizontal dimension, leads to the relativisation of all values, the process of blurring the boundaries to their eventual annihilation.
The search for spaces of cooperation between the methodology of natural sciences (cognitive sciences in particular) and the phenomenological approach has gained importance over time. However, it is ...necessary not to lose sight of the fact that Husserlian phenomenology was first and foremost characterized by a profound critique of ontological naturalism, a critique crucial for understanding the ethical sense of the phenomenological operation. To clarify this point, it is necessary to clarify the problematic role that naturalism has played - and continues to play - on the ethical level, and the way in which phenomenological criticism is able to neutralize it. In the following pages we will first try to illustrate the impact of ontological naturalism on the contemporary ethical vision and then to show how the phenomenological perspective is best understandable as a way to reveal the blind spots of naturalism, to denounce its implicit reductionism, and to reopen an ethical perspective that the historical establishment of a naturalistic worldview had artificially closed.
The paper presents an analysis and interpretation of axiology and ethics as seen by the writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. The author follows the assumption that, in a situation where indifference is ...observed with regard to values (cf. Simmel, Sloterdijk), a return of philosophical reasoning to the idea of objectivity of values could be worthwhile. Therefore, he examines a specific type of axiological objectivism that can be found in Rand’s work. In the present paper, the suggested comparison with Baden neo-Kantism as well as phenomenological axiology serves to capture the specifics of Rand’s axiological approach. These lie in placing emphasis on such a relationship between facts and values in which values result from the facts of reality, as well as in the very understanding of the objectivity of values that Rand identifies with long-term life goals and identifies them as an objective necessity for an individual’s life. Following the analysis of Rand’s axiology, the author focuses on her understanding of ethics, which he places in contrast to Kant’s deontology, as well as morality, which he views through the prism of a business relationship based on the exchange of values. The aim of the paper is to, by means of an analysis and interpretation of Rand’s ideas, show that objective values can be understood as a necessary prerequisite for consequential ethics and an individual living a happy life without being anchored in transcendence or social consensus.
U ovom radu nudim interpretaciju Mercierove kritike modernog pristupa spoznajnom problemu. Interpretacija počiva uglavnom na razlikovanju između objekta i stvari i na razlikovanju između objektivnoga ...i transobjektivnoga. Ta dva razlikovanja prožimaju Mercierovu kritiku, premda ih on nigdje ne razrađuje. U ovom radu, razrađujem te dvije distinkcije, da bih im potom pustio da, tako razrađene, prožmu Mercierovu kritiku iznova, s konačnim rezultatom koji, u osnovi, pokazuje da Mercierova kritika počiva na načelima objektivizma i objektivnoga realizma, nasuprot transobjektivnome realizmu, i na motivu povratka svijeta umu koji ga je stvorio, nasuprot modernoj koncepciji stvarnosti odvojene od uma.
In this paper, an interpretation of Mercier’s critique of the modern approach to the problem of knowledge is offered. The interpretation rests mainly on the distinction between the object and the thing and on the distinction between the objective and the transobjective. These two distinctions permeate Mercier's critique, though he never explicitly elaborates on them. I elaborate the distinctions and let them permeate the critique anew, now in their elaborate form. As a result, Mercier's critique is interpreted as resting fundamentally on the tenets of objectivism and objective realism, as opposed to the position of transobjective realism, and on the motive of bringing the world back to the mind who created it, as opposed to the modern background conception of mindless reality.
The interpretation of visual data obtained in a field study is substantially determined by the procedure for obtaining them. The purpose of the article is to analyze the process of social ...construction of visual sociological data by a researcher with a camera. Visual data are contradictory. On the one hand, the data represent physical imprint of reality. This is due to the technology of photography. The absolutization of this quality is fraught with overestimation of the authenticity of photographs. On the other hand, data are created by an observer who cannot but leave his/ or her mark on their content and form. The interpretation of visual data of the field research requires to take into account the nature of this print.In the process of social construction of visual data, several qualitatively different stages can be distinguished. (1) The observer's identification of “pixels” of facts in the unbroken stream of social reality. (2) Sorting them. He/ or she gives them the status of “important”, “curious” or puts them out of the brackets of observer’s attention. The very process of creating data is already their interpretation. (3) Framing adequate to the subject of the study. (4) Selection in the frame of the element on which focusing is performed. (5) Selecting the moment of picture creation. (6) Sorting of received pictures. Some are erased for various reasons, others get into the database. (7) Processing of the picture (cropping “excess”, adjusting the focus of attention using the light level, etc.). In the process of moving from stage to stage of observation, sociological facts turn into data as material for further analysis.All sociological data are social constructs. The photographs obtained in the field study are no exception. Their reliability is ensured, firstly, by the analysis of the procedure for obtaining them, fraught with subjectification of reality, secondly, by the use of triangulation of sources, observers and methodologies; thirdly, by the reputation of the researcher.
The author agrees with much of Roger E. Bissell's critique of the Objectivist idea of volition (in his July 2015 essay, “Where There's a Will, There's a ‘Why’: A Critique of the Objectivist Theory of ...Volition”), especially as expressed by Leonard Peikoff. On the other hand, the author believes Bissell's reform of the Objectivist conception is at best minimal and it lacks attention to thinking as an integral part of volition.
People often justify their moral opinions by referring to larger moral concerns (e. g., "It is
if homosexuals are not allowed to marry!" vs. "Letting homosexuals marry is against our
!"). Is there a ...general agreement about what concerns apply to different moral opinions? We used surveys in the United States and the United Kingdom to measure the perceived applicability of eight concerns (harm, violence, fairness, liberty, authority, ingroup, purity, and governmental overreach) to a wide range of moral opinions. Within countries, argument applicability scores were largely similar whether they were calculated among women or men, among young or old, among liberals or conservatives, or among people with or without higher education. Thus, the applicability of a given moral concern to a specific opinion can be viewed as an objective quality of the opinion, largely independent of the population in which it is measured. Finally, we used similar surveys in Israel and Brazil to establish that this independence of populations also extended to populations in different countries. However, the extent to which this holds across cultures beyond those included in the current study is still an open question.
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