ON THE EVOLUTIONARY ORIGIN OF VALUES

Abstract

Values drive not only human history, but our entire world, i.e. the biosphere. It would seem, therefore, that nothing can be more important for the future of the world than the theory or understanding of values. But in fact, scientific axiology is in a pre-paradigmatic stage of fragmented conceptualizations, i.e. there is no coherent theory of values as causal factors in the living world. Philosophers have reached a relative consensus only in distinguishing intrinsic values as resulting from states of mind or experiences (Narveson, 1967, p. 75; Frankena, 1973, pp. 81–82) from instrumental values, but beyond that there is no coherent conceptualization of other types of value (Nagel, 1979), whose relationship to immanent value usually remains undefined. Therefore, the question arises where do immanent values come from and how they relate to other categories of values.