- Characteristics of vital values
- Examples
- Max Scheler and life values
- Ortega y Gasset's perspective
- In which classification are the vital values?
- Sensation (or hedonistic) values
- Vital values
- Physical-emotional values
- Spiritual (or religious) values
- Types of vital values
- Healthy
- The unhealthy
- How strong
- The weak
- Themes of interest
- References
The vital values are the set of beliefs and principles of action in life, illness and death of a person. They consist of the things that a person gives importance to when establishing their life plan and that determine how they live and what decisions they make. For example, what lifestyle to follow, education, what people to relate to or how to live old age.
This concept belongs to the classification of values carried out by the German philosopher Max Scheler, who created a description of the importance of ethics and its influence on the development of man's character. Through values, the human being can find the meaning of the physical, the mental and the influence of what is around him.
For Scheler, vital values are in a separate classification, since they cannot be compared with those that are subject to beauty or pleasure. Life values have a much deeper meaning.
Characteristics of vital values
Some of the elements that can be highlighted of the vital values are the following:
- They refer to health and disease, life and death. Vital values determine the decisions that are made in these areas. For example, a person may have the vital value of caring for health and having a disease-prevention lifestyle.
- Although it refers to external aspects, it also pursues deeper emotional purposes. For example, a person may prefer to feel emotions related to bonding with other people.
- According to Ortega y Gasset, vital values have two dimensions: one that connects with our primitive part and another that has rather utilitarian functions.
- Apart from the physical, the vital values involve the mental and the environment that surrounds the human being. That is, they influence the decisions that influence mental life and how people react to events in the environment.
Examples
Vital values can be represented by words that can better illustrate their meaning:
-Noble / ignoble.
-Wellness / discomfort. A person can value feeling good about other things.
-Convenient / inconvenient.
- Love Hate. A person can value feeling love over other things.
- Illness / health. A person can value health over other things.
- Youth / old age. A person can value old age over other things.
Max Scheler and life values
Scheler determined the necessary foundations for the study of the phenomenon of emotions in the human being, including the influence of different types of values.
According to Scheler, vital values are obtained by linking the physical with the mental. Therefore, these values are beliefs and principles of action regarding how the people in their life are, how they carry their health, how they act or how they enjoy themselves.
While the vital involves physical well-being to achieve mental and spiritual enjoyment, it should not be degraded or distorted in the process.
Ortega y Gasset's perspective
As mentioned earlier, Scheler's approach emphasized the need to connect the physical and the spiritual to reach a higher level of value.
In The Sports Origin of the State, José Ortega y Gasset further explored the proposals made by Scheler and classified two types of activities that are manifested in the individual:
- One with an animal character and connected with our primitive side, in which creativity and spontaneity predominate.
- Another more streamlined and mechanical with utilitarian purposes. It lacks nature and creativity.
Although a balance must be found between the two states, thanks to the changes produced in the Modern Era, the second behavior has been prioritized more than the first, thus subtracting the higher value mentioned by Scheler.
Ortega y Gasset goes on to explain that the physical effort to maintain health is meaningless by only limiting it to the utilitarian, instead of pursuing a deeper benefit.
Making an unnecessary effort produces the loss of nobility of the vital value of health and strength, to become a cult towards superficiality in favor of social acceptance.
In which classification are the vital values?
Vital values are part of a broader classification:
Sensation (or hedonistic) values
They trigger feelings of satisfaction or pain. They have a short duration and are limited to the external. For example, pain, hunger, thirst, pleasure.
Vital values
Different states of the body, taking into account this as a single unit. They are also linked to fear and hope, the vulgar and the noble. Through these, each individual poses a project of personal fulfillment.
Physical-emotional values
They can be influenced depending on how social interaction is generated and can be subject to a mental or emotional predisposition. For example, anger, sadness, sympathy, jealousy. There is a manifestation of intentional emotions such as empathy, hatred or love.
Spiritual (or religious) values
Emotions take control of our mind and body. Sometimes it can even overwhelm us and present itself in unexpected ways.
Types of vital values
Healthy
Appearance of good health. Restitution of good health.
The unhealthy
Not healthy. Dangerous or harmful.
How strong
Vigor, character, strength and endurance.
The weak
Loose or giving way easily.
To achieve this hierarchy or classification, the polarity of the values was established where the positive meets its negative counterpart.
Themes of interest
Political values.
Hierarchy of values.
Priority values.
Personal values.
Transcendental values.
Types of securities.
Objective values.
References
- The hierarchy of values. (2008). In Abc. Retrieved: February 27, 2018. In Abc de abc.com.
- Max Scheler. (sf). On Wikipedia. Retrieved: February 27, 2018. In Wikipedia at es.wikipedia.org.
- Salamon Krakowska, Katarzyna. (sf). Vital values as perceived by Max Scheler and José Ortega y Gasset. In Degruyter. Retrieved: February 27, 2018. In Degruyter de degruyter.com
- Sánchez Migallón-Granados, Segio. (sf). Max Scheler. In Philosophica. Retrieved: February 27, 2018. In Philosophica at philosophica.info.
- Stratification on emotional life. (sf). On Wikipedia. Retrieved: February 27, 2018. In Wikipedia at en.wikipedia.org.
- Vital values. (2014). On SlideShare. Retrieved: February 27, 2018. In SlideShare of es.slideshare.net.