por What are transcendental values?
It is called transcendental values to those fundamental principles of the human that, as its name indicates, have the ability to transcend time and cross generational barriers. Thanks to these values, the individual can promote an adequate environment for the spiritual, social and economic development of a society.
This means that the development and spiritual strengthening of the human being have a positive impact on the social progress of any country, which extends to the satisfaction of both individual and collective needs and interests.
Likewise, the maintenance of transcendental values introduces a correct decision-making when carrying out any action or collective initiative, so that the violation or eradication of these values can lead to social chaos and misery. To avoid this it is necessary to protect these principles through education.
Definition
Regarding transcendental values, renowned philosophers have proposed two possible positions or axioms: in the first case, scholars propose that values are something subjective and relative, while the second position bets on the existence of objective values, which respond to a collective and not individual character.
In other words, for relativist philosophers, the human being is the one who attributes value to things, depending on their satisfaction or pain and their subjectivity. On the contrary, for the objectivist philosophers, the human rather discovers those already existing values through reason and reflection.
For its part, the objectivist current is divided into two possible streams. One of these —the phenomenological school— argues that value is presented as an ideal, while the other proposes that values are something real (realist school).
Following the objectivist trend, the German philosopher Max Scheler argued that values are not relative, since they respond to a spiritual essence that gives humans their «raison d’être» or their «reason for existing». According to this author, values are mainly essences, so they are not measurable or tangible.
Transcendental values according to Max Scheler
Values are not relative
In his work titled resentment in morals, Max Scheler determined that values are the pillars of all ethical behavior. Therefore, they have the ability to give morality a transcendent meaning, which rescues it from any individualistic character.
In the same way, for this author, values are neither relative nor capable of being negotiated. This position distances itself radically from positivism.
two forms of ethics
Scheler argued that there are two forms of ethics. One of these is the one built by the individual who, without the help of transcendence, is subject to constant errors and can be used by power to impose its will on societies.
On the other hand, transcendent ethics —or true ethics, according to the philosopher— contemplates the human being from his spirituality and has the capacity to grant him true values.
This leads the author to establish that ethics cannot be the product of mere human convention. Consequently, transcendental ethics is the practice through which ethics built by human beings is oriented and organized.
Transcendence of values and relationship with colors
The author Diego Medina Morales proposed a simple example to understand how Scheler defends the non-relativity of values: the nature of values corresponds to that of colors, since these exist independently of their respective depositories.
For example, red is a pure quality and can be understood without having to refer to its application or realization in an object or artifact. This is the case with values: they exist regardless of their tangible application in any given subject.
Then, the colors —like the values— are transcendent, since they do not depend on an individual application to exist. The red color will remain red because its nature is transcendent and permanent, as well as possessing pure quality.
There may be different shades of red, but this condition does not make it relative because the perception will depend on human convention.
In this way, the operation of transcendental values is explained: they can have different nuances, depending on each individual, each culture and each society. However, its main essence remains transcendent and unquestionable, despite all its possible variants.
Examples of transcendental values
Max Scheler dedicated several of his works to the study of transcendental values, for which he made a catalog of these principles and established a classification.
The author decided to make two fundamental divisions: first he proposed the polarity of each value and then he argued that these obey a specific hierarchy.
Polarity refers to the fact that all values have their counterpart, so there are positive and negative values, popularly known as anti-values. As for the hierarchy, this refers to the fact that each value can be equal to, superior to, or inferior to the rest of the values.
Bearing this in mind, the following examples can be established considering the aforementioned classification:
liking values
A simple example of this classification can be the sweet-sour relationship.
vital values
For example, be healthy. The opposite of this value is being sick.
spiritual values
These values can be divided into three categories: aesthetic (ugly-beautiful), legal (unfair-fair) and intellectual (truth-lie).
religious values
They head the hierarchy of values and can be exemplified through what is considered holy, whose contrast is the profane.
explanatory pyramid
To explain the hierarchy of values, Scheler uses a pyramid at the top of which are religious values, followed by spiritual values, then vital values, and finally useful or pleasing values.
Within the useful values we can find a subcategory in which the precepts of the pleasant stand out, whose anti-value is unpleasant, the adequate, contrary to the inadequate; and convenient, antonym of inconvenient.
Themes of interest
Value types.
Human values.
Anti-values.
Universal values.
Sociocultural values.
Civic values.
Social values.
Corporate values.
References
Medel, A. transcendental values. Retrieved from academia.edu.
Peredo, V. Transcendental values. Recovered from voielumina.weebly.com.
Saenz, J. Max Scheeler. Retrieved from bdigital.unal.edu.co.