What is a Value? Part 1: Presuppositions
I want to dive into more depth on the core of what a value is and what I believe to be good as I recently gave one example of a value, the value of lenity.
I believe that any ethical system needs to begin at a set of presuppositions. This is because life can be lived in a variety of ways. No way of living is inherently good without presupposing something that we cannot declare to be true. One can presuppose that living is good or that dying is good. Both are valid, neither are true.
Whatever one presupposes will influence his thoughts and actions. Since the world is vast and filled with various moving parts, even one presupposition can inspire a complex system of ethics. As ethics inspire actions and actions bring consequences, I feel it is important to uncover what I wish to presuppose. Perhaps I can consider desired consequences and base my system of ethics on how to bring this consequences to life while minimizing the negative ones.
Perhaps there are presuppositions hidden from me in what I have said this far, but I believe that what I have said starts me with a blank slate while explaining my rationale for starting there and setting up where I will go from here.
My first presupposition regards the fact that I know nothing other than my life, so I will choose to live it and try to make it as good as possible. This is not a unique idea as there are surely many people live by it, but that does not make it true. It is important to note that the idea of "good" is vague, whiich leads to divergences in ethics, which will be addressed later.
I want to emphasize that I want to maximize the good in MY life. This is a egoist approach. I am undoubtedly presupposing that I am the entity that should benefited by my actions at the end of the day or my actions were wasted. This should not be mistaken for greed as it is often the case that giving to others is beneficial to the giver in many cases. This is the basis of free market capitalism. There is giving and taking, but all parties theoretically benefit from exchanging goods. Although this was not directly the inspiration for my ideas, it is an accurate representation of my ideas.
This concept going from a blank slate to a presupposition is foundational to understand what a value is. Also, continuing with the value of lenity, I believe deconstructing this ideas helps me to understand why people have different values from myself and others. Seeing that presuppositions are not rooted in truth and are instead stances taken in the void of ethical ambiguity. If someone has a different value, it is interesting to see how they drew such a conclusion. This form of lenity can be the most difficult as it is difficult to uncover another's core presuppositions and to avoid feeling threatened by attacks on your own presuppositions. I also wish to understand how I found my ideas in order to ensure my stances are taken on solid ground rather than sand.