Changes and Conflicts of What We Value: Empirical Value-Surveys and Axiological Reflection

Journal of Value Inquiry (forthcoming)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss the notion of value presupposed by empirical value-surveys such as the World Values Survey (WVS) or the European Values Study (EVS), using some basic distinctions of philosophical value-theory. I intend to show that the framework of these surveys is grounded on definitions or implicit claims that are systematically problematic, having also a certain impact on the empirical realisation and some of the survey’s outcomes. First, it is shown that the assumption of values as “that what is valued” is not consistent with a taxonomy of four value-groups. Whereas the former leads to an inflation of values, the latter is too narrow even for the conceptualisation of some values mentioned in the survey’s questionnaire. Referring to the philosophical distinction of values and (valuable) goods, it is also shown that the survey’s framework is not able to articulate cases in which we value the same good over time but because of different value-aspects. Second, it is shown that an understanding of the value-groups as fundamentally conflicting does not withstand a critical review: Whereas the conflict of materialist and post-materialist values should be understood as a mere difference of preferences regarding goods that are all evaluated positively, the assumed conflict of traditional and secular-rational values depends on a rigorous, intolerant articulation of value-based worldviews.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,449

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Sacrificing Value.Lisa Tessman - 2018 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 26 (3):376-398.
Value Conflicts as Value Indicators.Eveli Neemre - 2024 - Acta Baltica Historiae Et Philosophiae Scientiarum 12 (1):100-116.

Analytics

Added to PP
2024-10-06

Downloads
15 (#1,278,503)

6 months
15 (#168,777)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Moritz Kalckreuth
Università degli Studi di Padova

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Philosophy and Real Politics.Raymond Geuss - 2008 - Princeton University Press.
Sources of the Self: The Making of Modern Identity.Charles Taylor - 1994 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 54 (1):187-190.
Virtue, Vice and Value.Thomas Hurka - 2001 - Philosophical Quarterly 52 (208):413-415.
Democracy: Instrumental vs. Non‐Instrumental Value.Elizabeth Anderson - 2009 - In Thomas Christiano & John Philip Christman, Contemporary Debates in Political Philosophy. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 213–227.

View all 12 references / Add more references