Universal human values ​​in their essence are. Abstract on the topic "Eternal universal values: Righteous behavior"

Every year, society moves further and further away from spiritual values ​​that were originally considered universal, material goods become more and more important, the latest technology and entertainment. Meanwhile, without the formation of universal moral values ​​among the younger generation, society becomes disunited and degenerates.

What are human values?

Values ​​that are considered universal, unite the norms, morality and guidelines of many people of different peoples and eras. They can be called laws, principles, canons, etc. These values ​​are not material, although they are important for all mankind.

Universal values ​​are aimed at the development of spirituality, freedom, equality among all members of society. If in the process of self-knowledge of people there was no influence of universal values, acts of violence are justified in society, hostility, worship of the “money calf”, and slavery flourish.

Some are carriers of universal spiritual values. Most often they are known to many people even many years after death. The Russian land has raised many such personalities, among which we can mention Seraphim of Sarov, Sergius of Radonezh, Matrona of Moscow, Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Mikhail Lomonosov and many others. All these people carried goodness, love, faith and enlightenment.

Very often, art objects are universal values. The desire for beauty, the desire to show one's uniqueness, to know the world and oneself awaken in a person a thirst to create, invent, design, create something completely new. Even in primitive society, people painted, created sculptures, decorated houses, and composed music.

Common human values ​​also include a sense of duty, human dignity, equality, faith, honesty, duty, justice, responsibility, the search for truth and the meaning of life. Clever rulers have always taken care of maintaining these values ​​- they developed science, built temples, took care of orphans and the elderly.

Raising children on universal values

Human values ​​are not innate - they are acquired in the process of education. Without them, especially in the context of the globalization of modern society, it is easy for any person to lose their individuality, spirituality and morality.

The upbringing of children is mainly carried out by the family and educational institutions. The role of both those and others for the child is colossal, the exclusion from the upbringing of any of the links leads to disastrous consequences. The family is traditionally the source of such moral values ​​as love, friendship, fidelity, honesty, care for elders, etc. School - develops the intellect, gives the child knowledge, helps in the search for truth, teaches creativity. The roles of the family and the school in education must necessarily complement each other. Together they should give the child knowledge about such universal values ​​as responsibility, justice, patriotism.

The main problem with universal human moral values ​​in modern society is due to the fact that an alternative to the upbringing adopted in Soviet schools is still being sought. Of course, it had its drawbacks (authoritarianism, excessive politicization, the desire for show), but it also had significant advantages. In the family, the modern younger generation is often left to its own devices due to the high employment of parents.

The church helps to preserve enduring values. The Old Testament commandments and sermons of Jesus fully answer many of the moral questions of Christians. Spiritual values ​​are supported by any official religion, which is why they are universal.

Human values- these are fundamental, universal guidelines and norms, moral values, which are the absolute standard for people of all cultures and eras.
Eternal values:
1. Based on goodness and reason, truth and beauty, peacefulness and philanthropy, diligence and solidarity, worldview ideals, moral and legal norms, reflecting the historical spiritual experience of all mankind and creating conditions for the realization of universal human interests, for the full existence and development of each individual.
2. Well-being of loved ones, love, peace, freedom, respect.
3. Life, freedom, happiness, as well as the highest manifestations of human nature, revealed in his communication with his own kind and with the transcendent world.
4. "The golden rule of morality" - do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.
5. Truth, beauty, justice.
6. Peace, the life of mankind.
7. Peace and friendship between peoples, individual rights and freedoms, social justice, human dignity, environmental and material well-being of people.
8. Moral requirements associated with the ideals of humanism, justice and dignity of the individual.
9. Basic laws that exist in most countries (prohibition of murder, theft, etc.).
10. Religious commandments. Some religions consider their laws to be universal values. For example, Christians refer to the Ten Commandments as such.
11. Life itself, the problem of its preservation and development in natural and cultural forms.
12. The system of axiological maxims, the content of which is not directly related to a specific historical period in the development of society or a specific ethnic tradition, but, being filled in each socio-cultural tradition with its own specific meaning, is reproduced in any type of culture as values.
13. Values ​​that are important for all people and have universal significance.
14. Moral values ​​that exist theoretically and are the absolute standard for people of all cultures and eras.
Human values ​​are divided into several types:
1.Cultural.
2.Social.
3. Moral.
Cultural values- this is the property of a certain ethnic, social, sociographic group, which can be expressed by some forms of artistic, visual and other arts.
Human cultural values:
- Literature - as the main accumulator of invaluable experience of generations
Religion - religious or ideological (including political) beliefs that replace them, which are the main components of a person's daily life, including those that form his internal culture.
-Art is everything that allows one person to express himself, and another - through the knowledge of the creativity of another to grow spiritually. These are very complex aspects of culture.
So - literature, religion, art - are the forming parts of the internal culture of the individual. They are the core values, without which the very existence of culture is either impossible or seems unlikely.
social values- this is the world of inner aspirations, unshakable, intimate life orientations of a person; life ideals and goals that, in the opinion of the majority in a given society, should be achieved.
The system of values ​​of social values ​​of the subject may include various values:
-meaningful values ​​- ideas about good and evil, happiness, purpose and meaning of life;
-universal values ​​- life, health, personal security, welfare, family, education, qualifications, law and order;
-values ​​of interpersonal communication - honesty, disinterestedness, goodwill;
-values ​​of public recognition - diligence, social status;
-democratic values ​​- freedom of speech, conscience, parties, national sovereignty.
Social norms are formed on the basis of social values. Social norm (from lat. norma - rule, model, measure) - a rule of behavior established in society that regulates relations between people, social life.
Types of social norms: customs, traditions, rituals, moral norms, legal and religious norms.
The highest moral values ​​of a person:
-Mutual assistance - a person's desire for good (help, salvation) in relation to others.
-Mercy is the refusal of condemnation and the willingness to help one's neighbor.
- Compassion - Pity, sympathy, caused by the misfortune of another person; condescension to the weak, crippled, sick.
-Honesty is another of the highest moral values. The easiest way to determine the level of morality of a person is to track how often he lies. The only practical justification for lying is white lies.


Values ​​in human life: definition, features and their classification

08.04.2015

Snezhana Ivanova

The most important role in the life of an individual and society as a whole is played by values ​​and value orientations...

The most important role not only in the life of each individual person, but also in the whole society as a whole is played by values ​​and value orientations, which primarily perform an integrative function. It is on the basis of values ​​(while focusing on their approval in society) that each person makes his own choice in life. Values, occupying a central position in the structure of personality, have a significant impact on the direction of a person and the content of his social activity, behavior and actions, his social position and his general attitude towards the world, towards himself and other people. Therefore, the loss of the meaning of life by a person is always the result of the destruction and rethinking of the old system of values, and in order to regain this meaning again, he needs to create a new system based on universal human experience and using the forms of behavior and activities accepted in society.

Values ​​are a kind of internal integrator of a person, concentrating around themselves all his needs, interests, ideals, attitudes and beliefs. Thus, the value system in a person's life takes the form of the inner core of his entire personality, and the same system in society is the core of its culture. Value systems, functioning both at the level of the individual and at the level of society, create a kind of unity. This is due to the fact that the personal value system is always formed based on the values ​​that are dominant in a particular society, and they, in turn, influence the choice of the individual goal of each individual and determine the ways to achieve it.

Values ​​in a person's life are the basis for choosing the goals, methods and conditions of activity, and also help him answer the question, why does he perform this or that activity? In addition, values ​​are the system-forming core of the idea (or program), human activity and his inner spiritual life, because spiritual principles, intentions and humanity no longer relate to activity, but to values ​​and value orientations.

The role of values ​​in human life: theoretical approaches to the problem

Modern human values- the most urgent problem of both theoretical and applied psychology, since they influence the formation and are the integrative basis of the activity of not only a single individual, but also a social group (large or small), a team, an ethnic group, a nation and all of humanity. It is difficult to overestimate the role of values ​​in a person's life, because they illuminate his life, filling it with harmony and simplicity, which determines a person's desire for free will, for the will of creative possibilities.

The problem of human values ​​in life is studied by the science of axiology ( in lane from Greek axia / axio - value, logos / logos - a reasonable word, teaching, study), more precisely, a separate branch of scientific knowledge of philosophy, sociology, psychology and pedagogy. In psychology, values ​​are usually understood as something significant for the person himself, something that gives an answer to his actual, personal meanings. Values ​​are also seen as a concept that denotes objects, phenomena, their properties and abstract ideas that reflect social ideals and therefore are the standard of due.

It should be noted that the special importance and significance of values ​​in human life arises only in comparison with the opposite (this is how people strive for good, because evil exists on earth). Values ​​cover the whole life of both a person and the whole of humanity, while they affect absolutely all areas (cognitive, behavioral and emotional-sensory).

The problem of values ​​was of interest to many well-known philosophers, sociologists, psychologists and educators, but the study of this issue began in ancient times. So, for example, Socrates was one of the first who tried to understand what goodness, virtue and beauty are, and these concepts were separated from things or actions. He believed that the knowledge achieved through the understanding of these concepts is the basis of a person's moral behavior. Here it is also worth referring to the ideas of Protagoras, who believed that each person is already a value as a measure of what exists and what does not exist.

Analyzing the category of “value”, one cannot ignore Aristotle, because it is to him that the term “thymia” (or valued) originated. He believed that values ​​in human life are both the source of things and phenomena and the cause of their diversity. Aristotle identified the following benefits:

  • valued (or divine, to which the philosopher attributed the soul and mind);
  • praised (impudent praise);
  • opportunities (here the philosopher attributed strength, wealth, beauty, power, etc.).

Philosophers of modern times made a significant contribution to the development of questions about the nature of values. Among the most significant figures of that era, it is worth highlighting I. Kant, who called the will the central category that could help in solving the problems of the human value sphere. And the most detailed explanation of the process of formation of values ​​belongs to G. Hegel, who described the changes in values, their connections and structure in the three stages of the existence of activity (they are described in more detail below in the table).

Features of changing values ​​in the process of activity (according to G. Hegel)

Steps of activity Features of the formation of values
first the emergence of a subjective value (its definition occurs even before the start of actions), a decision is made, that is, the value-goal must be concretized and correlated with external changing conditions
second Value is in the focus of the activity itself, there is an active, but at the same time contradictory interaction between value and possible ways its achievements, here the value becomes a way for the formation of new values
third values ​​are woven directly into activity, where they manifest themselves as an objectified process

The problem of human values ​​in life has been deeply studied by foreign psychologists, among which it is worth noting the works of V. Frankl. He said that the meaning of human life as its basic education finds its manifestation in the system of values. Under the values ​​themselves, he understood the meanings (he called them “universals of meanings”), which are characteristic of a greater number of representatives not only of a particular society, but of humanity as a whole throughout the entire path of its development (historical). Viktor Frankl focused on the subjective significance of values, which is accompanied, first of all, by the person taking responsibility for its implementation.

In the second half of the last century, values ​​were often considered by scientists through the prism of the concepts of "value orientations" and "personal values". The greatest attention was paid to the study of the value orientations of the individual, which was understood both as an ideological, political, moral and ethical basis for a person's assessment of the surrounding reality, and as a way of differentiating objects according to their significance for the individual. The main thing that almost all scientists paid attention to was that value orientations are formed only thanks to the assimilation of social experience by a person, and they find their manifestation in goals, ideals, and other manifestations of personality. In turn, the system of values ​​in human life is the basis of the content side of the orientation of the individual and reflects its internal attitude in the surrounding reality.

Thus, value orientations in psychology were considered as a complex socio-psychological phenomenon that characterized the orientation of the personality and the content side of its activity, which determined the general approach of a person to himself, other people and to the world as a whole, and also gave meaning and direction to his personality. behavior and activities.

Forms of existence of values, their signs and features

Throughout its history of development, humankind has developed universal or universal values ​​that have not changed their meaning or diminished their significance for many generations. These are such values ​​as truth, beauty, goodness, freedom, justice and many others. These and many other values ​​in a person's life are associated with the motivational-need sphere and are an important regulatory factor in his life.

Values ​​in psychological understanding can be represented in two meanings:

  • in the form of objectively existing ideas, objects, phenomena, actions, properties of products (both material and spiritual);
  • as their significance for a person (value system).

Among the forms of existence of values, there are: social, subject and personal (they are presented in more detail in the table).

Forms of existence of values ​​according to O.V. Sukhomlinsky

Of particular importance in the study of values ​​and value orientations were the studies of M. Rokeach. He understood by values ​​positive or negative ideas (and abstract ones), which are in no way connected with any particular object or situation, but are only an expression of human beliefs about types of behavior and prevailing goals. According to the researcher, all values ​​have the following features:

  • the total number of values ​​(significant and motivated) is small;
  • all values ​​in people are similar (only the steps of their significance are different);
  • all values ​​are organized into systems;
  • the sources of values ​​are culture, society and social institutions;
  • values ​​have an impact on a large number of phenomena that are studied by a variety of sciences.

In addition, M. Rokeach established a direct dependence of a person's value orientations on many factors, such as his income level, gender, age, race, nationality, level of education and upbringing, religious orientation, political beliefs, etc.

Some signs of values ​​were also proposed by S. Schwartz and W. Bilisky, namely:

  • values ​​are understood as either a concept or a belief;
  • they refer to the desired end states of the individual or to his behavior;
  • they have a supra-situational character;
  • are guided by the choice, as well as the assessment of human behavior and actions;
  • they are ordered by importance.

Classification of values

Today in psychology there is a huge number of very different classifications of values ​​and value orientations. Such diversity appeared due to the fact that values ​​are classified according to various criteria. So they can be combined into certain groups and classes, depending on what types of needs these values ​​satisfy, what role they play in a person's life and in what area they are applied. The table below shows the most generalized classification of values.

Classification of values

Criteria Values ​​can be
assimilation object material and moral
subject and object content socio-political, economic and moral
subject of assimilation social, class and values social groups
purpose of assimilation selfish and altruistic
generalization level concrete and abstract
mode of manifestation persistent and situational
the role of human activity terminal and instrumental
content of human activity cognitive and object-transforming (creative, aesthetic, scientific, religious, etc.)
belonging individual (or personal), group, collective, public, national, universal
group-society relationship positive and negative

From the point of view of the psychological characteristics of human values, the classification proposed by K. Khabibulin is interesting. Their values ​​were divided as follows:

  • depending on the subject of activity, values ​​can be individual or act as values ​​of a group, class, society;
  • according to the object of activity, the scientist singled out material values in human life (or vital) and sociogenic (or spiritual);
  • depending on the type of human activity, values ​​can be cognitive, labor, educational and socio-political;
  • the last group consists of values ​​according to the way of performing activities.

There is also a classification based on the allocation of vital (human ideas about good, evil, happiness and sorrow) and universal values. This classification was proposed at the end of the last century by T.V. Butkovskaya. Universal values, according to the scientist, are:

  • vital (life, family, health);
  • social recognition (values ​​such as social status and employability);
  • interpersonal recognition (exhibition and honesty);
  • democratic (freedom of expression or freedom of speech);
  • particular (belonging to a family);
  • transcendental (manifestation of faith in God).

It is also worth dwelling separately on the classification of values ​​according to M. Rokeach, the author of the most famous method in the world, the main purpose of which is to determine the hierarchy of a person's value orientations. M. Rokeach divided all human values ​​into two broad categories:

  • terminal (or value-goals) - the person's conviction that the ultimate goal is worth all the effort to achieve it;
  • instrumental (or value-methods) - a person's conviction that a certain way of behavior and actions is the most successful for achieving the goal.

There are still a huge number of different classifications of values, a summary of which is given in the table below.

Value classifications

Scientist Values
V.P. Tugarinov spiritual education, art and science
socio-political justice, will, equality and brotherhood
material various types of material goods, technology
V.F. Sergeants material tools and methods of implementation
spiritual political, moral, ethical, religious, legal and philosophical
A. Maslow being (B-values) higher, characteristic of a person who is self-actualizing (values ​​of beauty, goodness, truth, simplicity, uniqueness, justice, etc.)
scarce (D-values) lower, aimed at satisfying a need that has been frustrated (values ​​such as sleep, security, dependence, tranquility, etc.)

Analyzing the presented classification, the question arises, what are the main values ​​in human life? In fact, there are a lot of such values, but the most important are common (or universal) values, which, according to V. Frankl, are based on three main human existentials - spirituality, freedom and responsibility. The psychologist identified the following groups of values ​​(“eternal values”):

  • creativity that allows people to understand what they can give to a given society;
  • experiences, thanks to which a person realizes what he receives from society and society;
  • relationships that enable people to realize their place (position) in relation to those factors that in any way limit their lives.

It should also be noted that the most important place is occupied by moral values ​​in human life, because they play a leading role in people's decisions related to morality and moral standards, and this in turn indicates the level of development of their personality and humanistic orientation.

The system of values ​​in human life

The problem of human values ​​in life occupies a leading position in psychological research, because they are the core of the personality and determine its direction. In solving this problem, a significant role belongs to the study of the value system, and here the research of S. Bubnova, who, based on the works of M. Rokeach, created her own model of the system of value orientations (it is hierarchical and consists of three levels), had a serious impact. The system of values ​​in human life, in her opinion, consists of:

  • values-ideals, which are the most general and abstract (this includes spiritual and social values);
  • values-properties that are fixed in the process of human life;
  • values-modes of activity and behavior.

Any system of values ​​will always combine two categories of values: values-goals (or terminal) and values-methods (or instrumental). Terminal includes the ideals and goals of a person, group and society, and instrumental - ways to achieve goals that are accepted and approved in a given society. Values-goals are more stable than values-methods, therefore they act as a system-forming factor in various social and cultural systems.

To the specific system of values ​​that exists in society, each person shows his own attitude. In psychology, there are five types of human relations in the value system (according to J. Gudechek):

  • active, which is expressed in a high degree of internalization of this system;
  • comfortable, that is, externally accepted, but at the same time a person does not identify himself with this system of values;
  • indifferent, which consists in the manifestation of indifference and total absence interest in this system;
  • disagreement or rejection, manifested in a critical attitude and condemnation of the value system, with the intention of changing it;
  • opposition, which manifests itself both in internal and external contradiction with this system.

It should be noted that the system of values ​​in human life is the most important component in the structure of the personality, while it occupies a borderline position - on the one hand, it is a system of personal meanings of a person, on the other, its motivational-need sphere. Values ​​and value orientations of a person act as the leading quality of a person, emphasizing its uniqueness and individuality.

Values ​​are the most powerful regulator of human life. They guide a person on the path of his development and determine his behavior and activities. In addition, the focus of a person on certain values ​​and value orientations will certainly have an impact on the process of formation of society as a whole.

Values ​​\u200b\u200b"eternal"

1. Based on goodness and reason, truth and beauty, peacefulness and philanthropy, diligence and solidarity, worldview ideals, moral and legal norms, reflecting the historical spiritual experience of all mankind and creating conditions for the realization of universal human interests, for the full existence and development of each individual.

2. Well-being of loved ones, love, peace, freedom, respect.

3. Life, freedom, happiness, as well as the highest manifestations of human nature, revealed in his communication with his own kind and with the transcendent world.

4. "The golden rule of morality" - do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.

5. Truth, beauty, justice.

6. Peace, the life of mankind.

7. Peace and friendship between peoples, individual rights and freedoms, social justice, human dignity, environmental and material well-being of people.

8. Moral requirements associated with the ideals of humanism, justice and dignity of the individual.

9. Basic laws that exist in most countries (prohibition of murder, theft, etc.).

10. Religious commandments.

11. Life itself, the problem of its preservation and development in natural and cultural forms.

12. The system of axiological maxims, the content of which is not directly related to a specific historical period in the development of society or a specific ethnic tradition, but, being filled in each socio-cultural tradition with its own specific meaning, is reproduced in any type of culture as values.

13. Values ​​that are important for all people and have universal significance.

14. Moral values ​​that exist theoretically and are the absolute standard for people of all cultures and eras.

Explanations:
Human values ​​are the most common. They express the common interests of the human race, inherent in the life of people of different historical eras, socio-economic structures, and in this capacity they act as an imperative for development. human civilization. The universality and immutability of universal human values ​​reflects some common features of class, national, political, religious, ethnic and cultural affiliation.

Human values ​​represent a certain system of the most important material and spiritual values. The main elements of this system are: natural and social world, moral principles, aesthetic and legal ideals, philosophical and religious ideas and other spiritual values. In the values ​​of universal human beings, the values ​​of social and individual life are united. They form value orientations (determining what is socially acceptable) as priorities for the socio-cultural development of ethnic groups or individuals, fixed by social practice or human life experience.
In connection with the object-subject nature of the value relationship, one can note the subject and subject values ​​of universal human beings.

The idea of ​​the priority of universal human values ​​is the core of new political thinking, which marks the transition in international politics from enmity, confrontation and forceful pressure to dialogue, compromise and cooperation.
Violation of universal human values ​​is considered as a crime against humanity.

The problem of universal human values ​​is dramatically renewed in the era of social catastrophism: the prevalence of destructive processes in politics, disintegration social institutions, devaluation of moral values ​​and the search for options for a civilized socio-cultural choice. In Modern and Contemporary times, attempts have been repeatedly made to completely deny the values ​​of universal humankind or to pass off as such the values ​​of individual social groups, classes, peoples and civilizations.

Another opinion: Human values ​​are abstractions that dictate to people the norms of behavior that in a given historical era better than others meet the interests of a particular human community (family, class, ethnic group, and, finally, humanity as a whole). When history gives the opportunity, each community seeks to impose its own values ​​on all other people, presenting them as "universal".

Third opinion: the phrase “Universal human values” is actively used in manipulation public opinion. It is argued that, despite the difference in national cultures, religions, living standards and development of the peoples of the Earth, there are certain values ​​that are the same for everyone, which everyone should follow without exception. This is a myth (fiction) in order to create an illusion in the understanding of humanity as a kind of monolithic organism with a single development path for all peoples and ways to achieve their goals.
In foreign policy The United States and its satellites talk about the protection of "universal human values" (democracy, protection of human rights, freedom, etc.) develop into open military and economic aggression against those countries and peoples who want to develop in their traditional way, different from the opinion the world community.
There are no absolute human values. For example, even if we take such a basic right, spelled out in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as the right to life, then here you can find enough examples of various world cultures in which life is not an absolute value (in ancient times, most cultures of the East and many cultures West, in the modern world - cultures based on Hinduism).
In other words, the term "Universal Human Values" is a euphemism that covers the West's desire to impose a new world order and ensure the globalization of the economy and multiculturalism, which will eventually erase all national differences and create a new race of universal human slaves serving for the benefit of the elect (it should be noted that the representatives of the so-called golden billion will not differ from such slaves in any way).

The fourth opinion: the attitude to the concept varies from a complete denial of the existence of "Universal Values" to the postulation of a specific list of them. One of the intermediate positions is, for example, the idea that under conditions modern world, where no community of people exists in isolation from others, for the peaceful coexistence of cultures, some common system of values ​​is simply necessary.

In recent years, technological projects aimed at modernizing various spheres of life have been actively initiated in our society. Unfortunately, they deal exclusively with the technocratic component. At the same time, all these projects fall on the old soil of obsolete social values. New technology initiatives need new concept public relations, a new system of values, which would become the necessary cement for strengthening the innovative basis of these projects.

Behind Lately such a term as "universal values" has left the public circulation. I would like to recall the existence of this cornerstone concept, because it is precisely this that will give innovations a solid foundation, will create, along with technical modernization, a fundamental spiritual framework designed for the long term.

Human values ​​are fundamental, universal guidelines and norms, moral values, which are the absolute standard for people of all cultures and eras.

The staggering variety of points of view on this issue contains ideas about universal human values ​​as a material, spiritual, and intellectual phenomenon. Sometimes universal values ​​are confused with the values ​​of humanity - water, air, food, flora and fauna, minerals, energy sources, etc. Or with values ​​that have a state (public) status - the security of the country, the economy, health care, education, life, etc. Therefore, some consider "values" to be stable, unchanged, while others - changing depending on the change in economic, political, military and other conditions, on the policy of the ruling elite or the party, on the change of the socio-political system, etc.

We will consider the OC - as a timeless phenomenon, as the original fundamental axioms, which can be referred to as: "principles", "laws", "settings", "commandments", "covenants", "creeds", "creeds", "canons ”, “spiritual axioms”, etc. This is an absolute, enduring and highly significant need of both humanity as a whole and an individual, regardless of gender, race, citizenship, social status, etc.

In direct connection with the understanding of the OC is the idea of ​​two variants of social relations: “There are two understandings of society: either society is understood as nature, or society is understood as spirit. If society is nature, then the violence of the strong over the weak, the selection of the strong and the fit, the will to power, the domination of man over man, slavery and inequality, man is a wolf to man, is justified. If society is a spirit, then the highest value of a person, human rights, freedom, equality and fraternity are affirmed ... This is the difference between the Russian and German ideas, between Dostoevsky and Hegel, between L. Tolstoy and Nietzsche ”(N. Berdyaev).

One of the central and most important OCs is a life individual person, acting as the ontological (existential) basis of all other values.

Another major human value is creation. It is creativity that allows a person to feel, to realize himself as a creator, creator of the unprecedented, hitherto non-existent. It elevates a person, makes his “I” not only especially significant, but also unique. This is an active value. The results of creativity capture the unity of the external and inner world person. Both the primitive man, and the child, and the modern adult experience special, joyful emotions when they manage to discover, invent, invent, design, create something new that does not exist in nature, or improve something already created earlier.

Creativity is manifested not only in utilitarian, cognitive, research activities, but also in moral and especially brightly in the artistic and aesthetic sphere. Already in primitive society, people drew, sculpted, sculpted, carved, decorated their homes, household items, clothing, weapons, tools, religious objects, themselves; they sang, played music, danced, depicted scenes of a different nature. This suggests that, beautiful (beauty)- can be considered as the highest aesthetic value.

People have always felt the need to seek truth. In the pre-scientific era, people's understanding of truth was very ambiguous: it included experienced and sacred knowledge, legends, beliefs, signs, hopes, beliefs, etc. Its bearers enjoyed special respect: old men, sorcerers, sorcerers, soothsayers, priests, philosophers, scientists. Far-sighted rulers cared about the development of science and education... That is why the truth can be put on a par with other initial values. This is the highest intellectual value, the value of man as Homo sapiens.

In unity with the considered values, it is formed and acts sense of justice. Justice is ensuring the interests of people, respect for their dignity. The affirmation of justice generates satisfaction in people. While injustice causes resentment, indignation, anger, hatred, envy, vindictiveness, etc., it pushes one to fight for the restoration of justice. This suggests that justice is the most important moral and legal value.

A number of authors in this context interpret the material good as the highest utilitarian value for a person as a bodily being. (However, in the approach we have chosen, such an interpretation of the material good clearly “does not fit”).

Two "ranks" of opposites line up: " life - good (good) - creativity - truth - beauty - justice" and " death - idleness - evil - lie - ugly - injustice". In the first chain of concepts, values ​​are interconnected by some kind of their correspondence, kinship, they are in unity with each other, and in the second, all anti-values ​​are in their unity, correspondence, kinship.

Some authors distinguish between biological man and social man. If the first is concerned with satisfying his needs - in food, clothing, housing, reproduction of his own kind ... Then the second, like a rosary, goes through the options: what is profitable and not profitable ... He has no internal restrictions, he is usually deprived conscience. The third kind of person is a spiritual person - this, to put it briefly, a man with a conscience. In other words, with the ability to distinguish between good and evil. OCs also include values ​​such as as the meaning of life, happiness, goodness, duty, responsibility, honor, dignity, faith, freedom, equality...

In the modern era of global change, absolute values ​​are of particular importance. goodness, beauty, truth and faith as the fundamental foundations of the corresponding forms of spiritual culture, suggesting harmony, measure, balance of the integral world of man and his constructive life-affirmation in culture. Goodness, beauty, truth and faith mean adherence to absolute values, their search and acquisition.

Biblical moral commandments are of lasting importance: the Old Testament Ten Commandments of Moses and the New Testament Sermon on the Mount of Jesus Christ.

In the history of every nation, every culture, there is changeable and permanent, temporary and timeless. One grows, flourishes, grows old and dies, while the other, in one form or another, passes from one form to another, without changing internally, but only externally. OC is something that remains eternal and unchanged throughout history, being in the depths of human culture. This is a moral axiomatics, something indisputable and universal, those spiritual pillars that "hold" the world, like the physical constants on which all scientific knowledge rests.

The very phrase “universal values” was introduced into use by M. S. Gorbachev during perestroika as a counterbalance to the “class morality” that had prevailed in the USSR before.

There is an opinion that adherence to universal human values ​​contributes to the preservation of the human species. At the same time, a number of universal human values ​​can exist as archetypes.

Many basic laws that exist in almost all countries relate to universal human values ​​(for example, the prohibition of murder, theft, etc.).

Many liberal principles, such as freedom of speech, human rights, are universal values.

Some religions consider their laws to be universal values. For example, Christians refer to the Ten Commandments as such.

It is often argued that the so-called "golden rule of morality" - "Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you" - can be an example of universal human value.

In preparing the material used: Encyclopedia of Sociology, Wikipedia, articles by V. Efimov, V. Talanov and others.

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