BOOK REVIEW ON PHILOSOPHY OF VALUES EAST AND WEST
AN INTRODUCTION
Book Review on Philosophy of Values East and West
An Introduction by Arul Jeba Packiaraj Y.
Introduction
Philosophy of values is an issue of topical interest and marks a great achievement in the history of human thought and civilization. The value concept is the core principle of culture, religion, personality, attitude and human behaviour. Philosophy of values is a generic term related to axiological problems dealing with description, understanding, identification of good and ugliness, obligation and prohibition in the process of judgment and decision-making. The expression 'Philosophy of value' represents an attempt to develop the notion of value into a distinct branch of philosophy. In Plato's idea of the 'good', the essential constituent of happiness is wisdom. True happiness is in the unending enjoyment of the good, and all knowledge should be defined in relation to the form of the good. Lotze (1817-1881) According to him the urge to be metaphysical is to be found in ethics, in the human craving to attain some ultimate good, but metaphysics involves the experience of ultimate goodness.
Philosophy of values is an expression which gained currency in the nineteenth century and incorporated ethics and aesthetics, but later included sociology, anthropology, politics, science, law, education, economics, psychology, and went on to expand into other avenues as well. Even Encyclopedia Britannica does not mention it, but speaks only economic values. Change in lifestyles, norms, traditions and values, which call for an unending series of adjustments and enormous flexibility is an issue that every human being has to contend with in life. The failure to dope with the demands of time and situations often culminates in a lot of tension stress and mental ailments that upset the rhythm of human life. However, the adjustments made should ultimately leas to the enhancement of the guiding principles of human life.
The highly relevant in today
The theme that this book discusses is highly relevant in today's society which has been witnessing rapid changes in its value systems. Values as guiding principles for the attainment of the ultimate value contribute significantly to the development of human society. The mission of philosophy today is to reinterpret and revaluate human thinking and living patterns so as to offer the global society definite value orientations. Philosophy has to evolve a programme for value education that can maximize global welfare philosophy of Values East and West represents a modest attempt at evolving unbiased thinking oriented to a value based life and the formation of a society more humane and worth living in.
The Contents of this book
This book has nine main Chapters with different subheadings. They are
1. What is Value?
2. Towards a Value System: Methodological Approaches
3. Five Pillars of Universal Value
4. Human Person as Value
5. Suffering as Value
6. Peace as Value
7. Pluralism of Values
8. The Indian Philosophy of Value
9. Towards a System of Universal Value
View Point of Chapters
Values can be defined and explained ethically (Philosophically) and theologically. Moral values are morally oriented-with a conviction, minding, action. They touch the behaviors of human beings (justice, truth, fidelity humaneness) and expresses conditions conducive to that end. Values are however not identical with ethical morns. The latter may try to practically values. Values are the motive force of our life. They are transcendental beliefs reflected in action.
Value philosophy is the traditional moral philosophy. It has to pass through development as natural philosophy. Besides value has to appear on three levels: pure theory (formal value), and the combination of both (axiological or scientific value). The concrete value has a richer intention than the particular value; the particular has a richer intention than the generic value. On the other hand, corresponding to the scale of intentional richness, there is the inverse scale of extensional richness.
Philosophers Views
Heraclitus (ca.460 B.C.), a pre-Socratic philosopher developed the 'theory of flux', 'unity of opposites' and the eternal recurrence of change. He ascribed human fortunes to internal forces and considered glory as a more permanent and valuable good sensual pleasure. He considered conflict to be the source of value generation.
Plato (fifth century B.C.) held that essences are known by intuition. The form of 'GOOD' is supremely transcendent, the source of the existence an essence of all other forms. Thus 'GOOD' is the primary cause of all other forms; it is itself transcendent to all intelligibility and, therefore cannot be completely explained.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.). The ultimate goal of man is happiness or eudaimonia. It is living well, which shows interest in the nature of the human being alone is capable of because of the inherent divine nature. His thesis is that every being acts for a purpose; the good is nothing other than one's end or goal.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) in the middle Ages, with the availability of a mew translation of Aristotelian philosophy, made an evaluation of concepts like freedom, morality, psychology and ethics. As a moralist he attempted a synthesis of the insights of revives thinkers into a consistent whole. One of his contributions was his notion of the moral sense (syndersis) as the habit of the intellect rather than as a faculty. So like wise someny philosophers gave their own way of critical answers for the moral philosophy.
Conclusion
The moral philosophy and the values are very essential for human welfare. Because it has helped the formation of many eminent persons of great moral caliber in various fields of human life and work. This gives an idea about what is moral and the values. My way of understanding this that without values a person cannot live on this earth. Peace can result only from hard work and self-sacrifice and works of justice. None-violence, which was propounded in a concrete and practical way by Mahatma Gandhi through his own life and work, springs from inner realization of the equality of all living beings and the entire creation.
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