A PHENOMENOLOGY OF VALUE AND TRANSFORMATION

Is Survival a Value?


Survival in the non-cosncious plane of being is not a value. It spontaneously runs along the flow of implicit biological order wherein human consciousness has no primal focus. Such nature is seen among animals and even newborn babies. They are driven by an instictive force toward a struggle for survival wherein deliberation is non-operative. An unmensch (Nietzsche) through which drive for survival is seen is not consciously aware of what ought to be done. What it does is simply an event in the realm of unconscious regularities. Through constant regularities occurring between its biologival structure and the milieu into which it has been adapted, bilogical needs ar spontaneously generated and do conform to what is.

However, the explicitation of "survival" leads us to a higher plane. Here, survival is thematically presented to human consciousness and thereby acquires a twofold character sujectively dependent upon each individual human being to whom survival becomes an issue. To him who believes that existence is only an accident, survival which is a by-product of this accident is just another accident to which his entire existence is tied-up until the point when he will ultimately disintegrate to nothing. Survival, therefore, in this instance, is not a value--a desirable objective of all human undertakings--but simply an "unsought-for" drive that is inseparable from the necessities spontaneously generated in the unconsious biological dimension of reality. For such types of human, values are only those which he can freely desire within the confines of conscious reflection, wtih no connection whatsoever to the the mysterious stream of blind natural processes completely uncontrolled by human sanity.

Acquisition of Values

Values are acquired through social practice. To constitute reality, the human being is caught in a dialectical relation with the world, By the very nature of this relation, the human being consciously perceives the necessities involved to continuously participate in the historic process. Her/His knowledge of these necessities is a dimension of freedom, for, upon knowing the complexities of living, the human will is then left in an autonomous situation to reflect and act upon it, to change what can possibly be changed.

In action and reflection--praxis--values are acquired; for how can the human being, the "being-for-itself," go on in her/ his struggle to be united with the "self" if there is not a value that will give meaning to her/his aspirations? The human being in her/his becoming is always confronted by possibilities because it is a facticity of her/his existence to be incomplete--always lacking as s/he strides on new situations from moment to moment.

Fundamental Values Crucial for Social Transformation

There are threee fundamental values crucial in dealing with the arduous task of social transformation. These are freedom, responsibility and creativity. Every humanist value that has been given an eminent place in the heart of the human being as s/he partakes in the task of moving toward higher and greater refinement follows from the primacy of these three values.

From the necessities of human existence geared toward social transformation, we can fully harness the value of freedom in terms of decision-making . In the process of being immersed in such kind of situations, i.e., to keep oneself always in touch with what is obtaining in the superstructure of society, responsibility is definitely significant. Both freedom and responsibility are, however, futile if they are not perfectly joined in unison with our wish tocreate a just, humanized and hence humanizing society.