Talking about what we consider is appropriate for social coexistence sometimes causes dissonance, since some of us may think that in certain contexts the application of certain attitudes is not necessary for coexistence. In this way, universal values emerge when they are recognized and applied in all social groups beyond their singularities; These are set with the aim of creating a healthier and more pleasant context to live in. In this Psychology-Online article we explain more about the Universal values: what they are, list and examples.
What are universal values
Universal values are a collection of House Rules valid at a given time and period. These universal values can become shared by different cultures or social groups and they are transmitted through family and school education, but also through everything in the media.
The term worth We will take it as a reference to something that a subject or a social group considers to have an importance that justifies it being privileged, promoted and pursued. Thus we must also clarify that a value is not the same as a desire; Desiring something implies wanting a certain thing without reflecting too much on it, that is, that desire could arise from an instinct, a physical need or an impulse. On the other hand, a value can originate from one or more desires, but comes after having reflected whether what we need (want) is good or not.
George Edward Moore (1925) argued that it is impossible to define the term Well Since there is no model with which we can discover the meaning of this term, this philosopher called this inability to define evaluative terms the naturalistic fallacy.
Thus we understand that each person values certain events, behaviors and mental states as they relate to their social context and education; Each culture privileges some things as a result of its ideas, historical trajectories, and geographic locations. However, affirming that there are universal values implies finding something that is used by all people and their communities as an effect of that shared humanity. These universal values can arise from scientific research within the framework of social sciences or philosophical meditation.
How and where to apply universal values?
Applying a universal value is possible through that simple gesture of appreciating everything that implies a calm and healthy coexistence with oneself and with others.
The very name -universal values- alludes to how broad their field of application is, since they are not limited only to known people, cultures, ideals and ways of living. Universal values can be applied in any geographic region and in quite particular and not precisely structured ways; Universal values are applied in those details that pursue the basic principle of life: the truth. Providing this principle to each of our actions and with each of our fellow human beings and analogues is undoubtedly one of the ways of applying universal values.
List of universal values, meaning and examples
Below we share 20 universal values, the meaning of each of them and some examples. These are the most important universal values:
- Friendship: It is the esteem between people that allows them to establish much closer bonds of coexistence. Sardonically, Ambrose Bierce (1906) explains friendship in the following way: a ship large enough to carry two in good weather, but only one in a storm.
- Trust: feeling of self-confidence towards a person or thing.
- Love: It is a manifestation of living beings towards everything that represents beauty and good. An example of this common goal towards beauty is the ability to actively work for my freedom and that of another, even if that freedom does not include someone else, we decide to share it.
- Justice: is to give something to someone who is qualified to have it.
- Freedom: It is the ability to act according to one’s own will without this implying harm to the freedom of another person and being aware of the price that entails.
- Goodness: It is the natural inclination to do good and indicates softness and mildness of temper and good is the origin of all Being.
- Honor: it is the quality that guides the human being to strict compliance with his responsibilities with himself and with others, thus honor corresponds to a symbol of the virtuous life and belongs to the collective unconscious as an essential universal value in the archetype of the hero.
- Fraternity: it is the union and good correspondence between human beings, that is, between brothers or those who treat each other as such.
- Honesty: corresponds to people who have a significant degree of self-awareness that is consistent with what they think and do. It is a universal value that includes sincerity and righteousness. This value seeks to avoid deception towards others and towards oneself, which is why it also corresponds to self-knowledge.
- I respect: a capacity that requires being able to attribute to others a value similar to one’s own in order to recognize their rights and responsibilities from that point. It is a universal value that implies being able to recognize the existence of others, recognize their needs and interests, therefore, this value is reciprocal. Respect implies accepting that there is a great diversity of ideas, customs and opinions.
- Peace: acts that enable balanced, symmetrical and harmonious coexistence between people of a certain group.
- Responsibility: it is the ability to respond, thus taking charge of one’s own acts, decisions and obligations, therefore it is a quality of one’s own will.
- Solidarity: corresponds to that mutual responsibility of several people that allows them to collaborate in the cause of others.
- Tolerance: the capacity achieved in those who dominate the episteme, and who allow freedom of conscience. A clear example of tolerance is one where we are able to share without needing to impose our truth on the other’s and without having to renounce it, despite obvious differences in thought.
- Courage: It is the ability that allows confrontation despite fear.
- Self-control: It is the ability to know one’s own impulses and emotions in order to regulate them.
- Empathy: It is the ability to become aware of the feelings, needs and concerns of others.
- Gratitude: It is the recognition of the help that others give us.
- Wisdom: is the acquisition of knowledge and experiences for the development of activities carried out within a society.
- Compassion: corresponds to the understanding of the suffering of others.
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Bibliography
- George Edward Moore. (1925). Defense of common sense. Orbis Publishers.
- Ambrose Bierce. (1906). The devil’s dictionary.