Insightful thread from @alicemazzy.
I’d add: it’s not about “values.” Those are empty signifiers used merely to construct post hoc rationalizations.
Significant instead is the texture of personal experience: different according to social position.https://twitter.com/alicemazzy/status/969304258947567622 …
is the sneer caused by the culture-war loaded use of the word values? e.g. "values voters" etc. or are you dipping a toe into some post-nihilism here?
-
-
Well, the culture war usage (on both sides) is a particularly harmful manifestation. But “values” is a folk-psychological notion that doesn’t correspond to anything in reality, and is actively misleading in understanding motivations.
-
Strange. I interpret having values to mean that you care about things, that you make judgments about what's desirable or not in general (not just as a personal experience). Seems obvious that people do that.
-
[Best expansion I’ve managed so far:]https://twitter.com/Meaningness/status/969643349983375360 …
-
Should I take that as you meaning that we don't actually care about things, that the experience of caring is a construction of our internal PR-officer so to speak? I'm somewhat sympathetic to a version of that but not as a complete theory, I think.
-
No; rather, that the caring-about is not meaningfully summarized by “values.” It’s too fine-grained.
-
Might that depend on the degree of self-awareness of the person talking about their values? I tend to think most, but not all, people talking about their ‘values’ are deceiving themselves and posturing (without conscious intent, I assume), but some seem to get what they’re about.
-
Yes, I think that’s right. The construction of a systematic self (in Kegan’s sense) involves bringing activity increasingly in line with explicitly-held values.
-
But the shift to stage 5 ethics consists of realizing first that these “values” are empty posturing (which can drop you in stage 4.5 ethical nihilism) and then finding a new ethical sensibility that recovers them as nebulous objects, rather than constitutive of the subject.
- 3 more replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.