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Academy Resources Glossary of Philosophical Terms Timeline of Philosophy A Timeline of American Philosophy Diagram: Development of Philosophic Thought Diagram: Divisions of Philosophy The Philosophy Resource Center The Religion Resource Center Books about Philosophy in The Radical Academy Bookstore Books about Religion in The Radical Academy Bookstore Click Here for New & Used College Textbooks at Discount Prices Click Here for College Education Information & Study Resources Shop Amazon Stores in the Radical Academy Bookstore Magazine Outlet Music Store Classical Music Store Video Store DVD Store Computer Store Camera & Photo Store Computer/Video Games Software Store Musical Instruments Outlet Store Cellular Phones Toys & Games Tools & Hardware Automotive Store Outdoor Living Consumer Electronics Home & Garden Kitchen & Housewares Baby Superstore Apparel & Accessories Gourmet Food Grocery Store Sporting Goods Jewelry & Watches Health & Personal Care Beauty Store		Value and Validity by Nicolai Hartmann   The so-called "relativity of values" is nothing but the historical instability of their actuality which results in the instability of validity. That solves the puzzle why it is so often asserted that the values themselves are relative. For validity has always been considered the sort of being of the values themselves. But that has been recognized as an error, and therefore the relativity of the "being valuable" is untenable. Notwithstanding all regarding the change of the real, there remains a definite kind of independence of the value-character itself, or of the "being valuable" (for instance the being valuable of a certain manner of acting in certain circumstances). This absoluteness is very evident in the fact of the super-temporariness of the being valuable, even if the valuable real is only ephemeral. It is an error to think that only the eternal could have eternal value. Just the transient has eternal value. Its value-character is the eternal in it. The value of a thing is as little dependent on its duration as the truth of a proposition is dependent on the flash or disappearance of the insight in human minds. Upon this footing, a synthesis of the right value relativism and the right value-absolutism is possible. If both of them limit themselves strictly to the phenomena and refrain from constructing theories, they can complete one another harmoniously. Relativism may be satisfied with the historical conditionality of actuality and "validity," which is conceded by the adversary. Absolutism, on its part, may be satisfied with the continuance of the "being valuable," even when it is not actual and not "valid," and that does not affect the facts of historical relativity. Both of these theories not only contain a truth but are indispensable to each other. For only the relativity of validity demonstrates the meaning of independent continuance, and only that meaning can make evident what relativity really is. Moreover, only these two theories together can clarify the mystery of the value-consciousness. If the perception of values is dependent on historical circumstances, it seems to be unreliable for that reason. Since, however, we have no other knowledge about values, that would mean that any kind of comprehending values is uncertain. It therefore is important to recognize that it really does matter that certain values are at certain times non-valid while they are valid at other times. This phenomenon is clarified entirely by the historical conditionality of actuality. This expression is completed by Scheler's notion of "value-blindness" and the notion of "narrowness of the value-consciousness" introduced by myself. To understand this phenomenon, we do not need the assumption of a deceivableness of the valuing feelings. It is sufficient to think that all valuing feelings are limited as far as their contents are concerned, incapable of comprehending all of the values, and may become seeing only in accordance with the degree of their maturing, though conditional upon the historical change of the shape of life. However, the valuing feeling can grasp values only in accordance with the laws of its own development. The notion of "narrowness of the value-consciousness" needs as its complementary notion that of the "wandering of the valuing glance" whose horizon is inside the plane of the values. Seen from the realm of the values this wandering means just the same as the historical conditionality of "validity." For it is moving in the course of time, and is dependent on the changing conditions of life. For at any time the consciousness is in touch with only a sector of the realm of values. This sector is another one at any time. The values themselves, however, remain motionless.   Excerpted from Das Wertproblem in der Philosophie der Gegenwart (Actes du Huitième Congres Internationale de Philosophie, 1934.) Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Book... Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Magazine... Academy Showcase Specials     Introduction & Directory
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