Why values are important in everyday life?

Free Webinar: Why values are important in everyday life?

 

Every day, many people from all walks of life think and talk about values. Any time we use such words as ‘worthy/unworthy,’ ‘value/valuable,’ ‘good/better/worse,’ ‘nice/beautiful/ugly,’ and many others we willy-nilly refer to some forms of evaluation and values. Some of these evaluations are short-term, as when we refer to some goods to be achieved soon; some of these evaluations are medium-term, as when we think of our education, partnership, etc.; they refer to long-term, as when we ask questions about the worth of our lives: does my life have any sense/worth? What is or should be its direction?

Philosophers pay attention to at least two dimensions here: do values have a subjective basis, which means that my own attitude towards a given good/worth/value is the most important, or rather values have a more objective character and I like something because my society makes me like it. In other words: do I value something because its valuable or rather something is valuable because I evaluate it high?

Why this topic is important? Many people seem disoriented in the societies in which everything is easily accessible. If you can get anything anytime, all goods seem to be worthy, just the price is different. However, after some time you can ask questions as to the status of love, happiness, decent life: are not these the worthy ‘things’ we should look for? Do not we face a hierarchy of values and would it not be better for us to recognize it sooner rather than later? Was not Socrates right in saying: ‘know yourself’ as the first commandment for an adequate recognition what is good for us?

I will talk about such things during my webinar (45 minutes) on Wednesday, January 20, at 9 PM CET (Berlin) / 8PM GMT (London) / 3PM EST (New York) /7AM AEDT (Sydney). Feel free to tell me before as to what are your expectations and questions on the topic.