Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: pluralism and uncertainty
- 2 Openness
- 3 The retreat
- 4 The moral sphere
- 5 Fact and value
- 6 Value experiments
- 7 Virtues, excellences and forms of life
- 8 The fourth dimension
- 9 Aspiration
- 10 Wisdom
- 11 Objective worth
- 12 The Bach crystals
- 13 Human flourishing
- 14 The Faust legend and the mosaic
- 15 The good and the right (I): intuitionism, Kantianism
- 16 The good and the right (II): utilitarianism, consequentialism
- 17 The good and the right (III): contractualism
- 18 Politics, public morality and law: justice, care and virtue
- References
- Index
6 - Value experiments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: pluralism and uncertainty
- 2 Openness
- 3 The retreat
- 4 The moral sphere
- 5 Fact and value
- 6 Value experiments
- 7 Virtues, excellences and forms of life
- 8 The fourth dimension
- 9 Aspiration
- 10 Wisdom
- 11 Objective worth
- 12 The Bach crystals
- 13 Human flourishing
- 14 The Faust legend and the mosaic
- 15 The good and the right (I): intuitionism, Kantianism
- 16 The good and the right (II): utilitarianism, consequentialism
- 17 The good and the right (III): contractualism
- 18 Politics, public morality and law: justice, care and virtue
- References
- Index
Summary
THE SECOND DIMENSION OF VALUE
In what I shall call a second dimension of value, value expands outward from mere subjective experience into the realm of action and practical engagements with the world, including activities in the pursuit of purposes or interests and attachments to things and persons we care about. Some basic value experiences may be momentary, analogous to points on a plane, while others, such as enjoying a horseback ride, will be stretched out over time, like lines in a plane. Experience stretched out in this way is sentient life; and when this life involves purposive activity with practical goals and attachments to things cared about that go beyond mere enjoyment or pleasure, we arrive at a second dimension of value.
This second dimension of value includes not only experiences, but also activities undertaken by individuals in the pursuit of plans, intentions, interests and purposes. If horseback riding is merely an enjoyable pastime for Jane, then the value of it for her is merely first-dimensional. But if the riding also has some further purpose, such as rounding up cattle or delivering mail, then we are into a second dimension of value. Jane may also enjoy the riding for its own sake in addition to its serving a useful function; and in that case she experiences value in both the first and second dimensions.
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- Information
- Ethics and the Quest for Wisdom , pp. 74 - 85Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010