NATURE OF ETHICS - 3

Facts and Values

Positive sciences are related to facts. Fact is related to 'what is'. The fact stands for things or events as they exist in a particular space and time. Facts and phenomena have no concealed significance beyond what they present to us in external experience. They are descriptive. Fact is something known to be true. It is a piece of information or reality. Facts satisfy our intellect.

Normative science deals with values. It is concerned with 'what ought to be'. Values are something to be pursued in life. Values belong to the background of facts and they are recognized by consciousness. Values are prescriptive. They are evaluative. Values are over and above the framework of facts that is constituted by matter, space, time, and causality. Values are neither true nor false. Values satisfy our desires & aspirations.

We become aware of the world of nature by sense and reason. Values do not exist in space and time like the objects of nature do. Values subsist in themselves above space and time. Values are not existents, they are subsistent. The consciousness of values is immediate and intuitive. Values transcend the spatio-temporal world.

Awareness about values is the inevitable development of the estimation of things and events. Facts and values are closely connected. So long as the fact is there; there is a value by implication. Facts and values are inseparable from one another. There can be no existence without values and no value without existence.

Intrinsic Values and Extrinsic Values

Values can be viewed from the standpoint of their importance. All values are experiences of different degrees of importance in the development of individuality. So we classify values based on the importance these values have.

Intrinsic value is one that has worth in its own right. It is an End-in-itself. Truth, Beauty, Goodness, Temperance, Courage, etc. are considered as intrinsic values. They are good not because of their consequences but because they are good in themselves. These values retain even if they were to exist completely alone. Intrinsic values are said to be Absolute values.

Extrinsic value is one which is a means to some other value. It is of instrumental worth only. A pair of spectacles is good only if there are eyes behind spectacles to see through them. The spectacles have instrumental value. Extrinsic or Instrumental values are part of a larger whole. They are a means to an End. Wealth, fame, physical fitness, etc. borrow their worth from something extraneous to them.

The terms Extrinsic and Intrinsic are used relatively. They are not always mutually exclusive or fixed. What is valued by one person for its own sake may be valued by another person as a means to an End? e.g. design of the washing machine.

Values can be graded as Positive Values and Negative Values, Productive Values, and Unproductive values; Permanent values and Transient values.

In general, Intrinsic values are rated higher than Extrinsic values. Positive values are preferred to Negative values.

The locus of values is the human mind. It is a special sort of reaction to the environment. The human mind has three psychical functions (aspects)—thinking, feeling, and willing. The values corresponding to these functions are Intellectual values (Truth), Aesthetic values (Beauty), and Moral values (Goodness). Truth, Beauty, and Good are Universal values.



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