Antony Kolencherry is professor of philosophy and spirituality of world religions with doctorates in both philosophy and theology at st. Peters Pontifical Institute and the Indian Institute of Spirituality Bangalore. He also lectures at the University of Vienna and many academic centers in India as well as abroad. He is the author of several books and scientific articles in German and in English. 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 patters so as to offer the global society definite value orientations. Philosophy has to evolve a programmers for value education that can maximize global welfare and minimize global problems..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 book Philosophy of Values East and West contains lectures delivered at Sri Venkiteshwara University, Thirupati, Andhra Pradesh, during 2001-2002.The authors humble contribution towards evolving unbiased thinking oriented to a value based life and the creation of a society more humane and livable.
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 is the essential constituent of happiness is wisdom. He tells that the philosophy of values is an expression which gained currency in the Nineteenth centaury and incorporated ethics and aesthetics. Later sociology, anthropology, politics, science, law, education, economics and psychology are also included. Today's philosophy of values follows two theories. They are normative and met normative respectively. The first deals with value judgements.The former deals with the good like pleasure, satisfaction, self realization, love, beauty and so on. The metaphysician is involved in the experience of ultimate goodness.Nietzche ascribes the ground of the value to the will. Moral values are morally oriented with a conviction, minding, action.
WHAT IS VALUE?
Philosophically the value can be explained in three ways.
· Value is what a thing is worth. Something translatable into or expressible by some unit of measurement or comparison, frequently definable numerically.
· Value as valuable: a thing, or property; something to the value is ascribed.
· Value as an Idea which makes as consider given objects, qualities or events as valuable.
TOWARDS AVALUE SYSTEM: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES
The philosophy of life changes the thinking pattern of the each individual. Then he will be the reflective and questioning being. The human person as a social being naturally needs a value system. Human problems are social problems and social sciences have to partner with every dimension of human life to enhance the quality of human beings and society. Science has played a key role in the advancement in the knowledge. Immanuel Kant proposed his synthetic a priori judgments which should serve as the basis for the universal statements of natural laws made by mathematical and natural sciences.
FIVE PILLARS OF UNIVERSAL VALUE
Dharmasastra is considered with the nature and the exposition of moral values or dharma. It involves the practice of virtue, duty, ethical sublimity, social norms and law.
Truth (Satya)
It stands for the totality of reality. It is the living truth. The theory of truth has many connotations. They are correspondence theory, which corresponds to reality, pragmatic theory which is workable solution, semantic theory, which goes by meta languages and applies to statements of the cognitive theory of language, per formative theory which truth is the per formative act of agreeing with a given statement.
Non-Violence (Ahimsa)
It implies non injuries. It is positively a virtue. In the Christian context it is love towards the neighbor. This concept is one among the great contribution of India.
Non-Stealing and Non-Coveting
Asteya is non-possession, abstaining from anything that one is not given. Non-coveting or aparigraha implies non-attachment rather than non-possession. It is a mental attitude.
Being with God (Brahmacharya)
It implies a holistic spirituality. The values of truth, goodness and beauty have been worth striving for the substantial part of Indian culture.
Human Person as Value
The human person occupies a prominent position in Vedic thought. God projects creatures into being by means of his material nature through his creative power of Maya. He is potentially divine but is not aware of his high dignity.
Value understanding is essential for human welfare Value judgment has helped the formation of many eminent persons of great moral caliber in various fields of human life and work. Value involves a relation to a value who is a limited being whose valuation can not be absolute. All values claim need not be valid. Philosophy should be practical. It is neither war nor conflict but the peace consciousness that fosters human welfare. We have to learn to reinterpret and reevaluate our own set of visions and world views and give a reorientation to our behavior patterns in a conducive to value enhancement. That calls men and women of dedication who can nurture virtues and qualities of life. Peace can result only from hard work and self sacrifice and works of justice.
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