• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

What value do you navigate by?

coberst

New member
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
336
What value do you navigate by?

It appears to me that we sapiens need a “North Star” upon which to fix our voyage. We need a reference point upon which we can focus our attention when trying to determine what of value we can and should do in life.

Religion, or God, serves as the compass for some people; for others it is nationalism; for others the guiding value is to own as much good stuff as possible; to others it is power; for some it is family; and I guess there are many other such ultimate values.

I have tried to examine my inner voices to determine just what my primary value is and does it need to be changed. I have determined that, by some turn of events, perhaps completely willy-nilly, my value North Star is life on this planet. My guidance for fixing value is ultimately dependent upon its aiding or hindering life on this planet.

I often speculate that human life is a hindrance to maximizing the ‘good life’, of all life, on this planet. I often speculate that if all life on this planet were given a vote in this matter that they would throw sapiens overboard.

What do you think?

coberstakaDutchuncle
 

Halla74

Artisan Conquerer
Joined
Jan 20, 2009
Messages
6,898
MBTI Type
ESTP
Enneagram
7w8
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
I navigate by the core values that were taught to me by example, by my parents, and by those that I have assumed on my own as I have matured and lived my own life. Do the right things for the right reasons. Don't let people disrespect you, stand up for yourself and demandfair treatment. Stand up for others that do not have the ability to do so for themselves. Do good in your everyday life, smell the roses along the way, work hard, play hard. Live, love, and forgive. Kill only when necessary. :D
 

Valiant

Courage is immortality
Joined
Jul 7, 2007
Messages
3,895
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
8w7
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
I live for knowledge and love.
 

juggernaut

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 22, 2009
Messages
1,009
My "North Star" is integrity. I don't think this is the "North Star", but it certainly is mine. Remaining true to oneself is a constant learning process. Environments (internal as well as external) change, and with those changes new realizations/ideas/goals emerge. Trying to accommodate these things without losing one's identity is a lifelong process, and what I believe is entailed in maintaining one's integrity. Everything else...truth, justice, love, belonging, belief...falls out of this one primary guiding force. Integrity isn't about establishing a set of rules that one needs to by. It's about knowing who we are and building a framework around that core which can be modified to accommodate change.
 

ajblaise

Minister of Propagandhi
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
7,914
MBTI Type
INTP
I have no North Star. I navigate the waters based on where the winds take me. I'm lost, but I have enough supplies with me to afford that luxury.
 

Lexicon

Temporal Mechanic
Staff member
Joined
Sep 28, 2008
Messages
12,342
MBTI Type
JINX
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
I exist to grow. Experience, soak in everything I possibly can from this impermanent state. I never stop reaching, inward, outward. Learning. My life is driven by passions and curiosity, and have a synergistic effect on one another. Inspiration. Illumination. It's all connected. I seek to find the paths between the dots. Space exploration. Questioning. Searching.
I am building and rebuilding constantly, reassessing my values based on my perpetually widening scope of the world around and within me.
 

Zoom

Self sustaining supernova
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
1,045
Enneagram
9w8
Mine seems to be a mixture of self-actualization and a need to experience all the amazing things I possibly can, whilst realizing the bad will come along with it. To learn, and bring light to others as I can. On a related note, I refuse to do things partly, and have a drive to do whatever I can with the things and people I am involved with. Passivity is not welcome in my life.
 

King sns

New member
Joined
Nov 4, 2008
Messages
6,714
MBTI Type
enfp
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Love, other people.

I'm fairly agnostic religiously.
 

ArtlessFuture

New member
Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
44
MBTI Type
INFP
This is a great thread!!

My values have been evolving more and more lately. So these are all subject to change/refinement.

1. Treat others as you wish to be treated. This really encompasses everything in life.

2. Responsibility and accountability. Not taking responsibility for others, and fully taking responsibility for yourself. Avoiding the blame game and victimhood. Trying to abandon the mindset of "That person makes me so mad!" And realizing that no, YOU are making yourself mad.

3. Acceptance and forgiveness. People will do very hurtful things. If I am not willing to forgive them, then all I am really truly doing is hurting myself. I have just recently begun to understand that forgiveness does NOT mean you condone someones actions. All it means is that you have come to terms with what has happened, and you are letting it go. The more I have been putting this into practice, the better I feel!!
 

01011010

New member
Joined
Jun 22, 2008
Messages
3,916
MBTI Type
INxJ
Equality
Justice
Empirical evidence
Science

As objective of the truth as possible for my perception.
 

lastrailway

New member
Joined
Aug 11, 2007
Messages
508
Not sure if they qualify as values, but they sure are principles I always do my best to navigate by:

-Respect others and request that others respect me.
-Responsibility for all of my actions and for every single word I say, even if I later change my mind about what I said or regret what I did. I've done/said it and it can't be undone/unsaid.
-Being always as much open-minded as I can get and try to understand the reasons behind the actions of myself and of others.
-Never harm others intentionally, except if in self-defence and try to make up for harm unintentionally caused.
-Stay alive, survive, be as much healthy, independent and free-minded as possible.
 

coberst

New member
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
336
Beauty and morality are species of values.

George Santayana says that “all values must be ultimately intrinsic”. He adds that the good, i.e. that which is desired, is good because of its consequences.

Aesthetics is about the perception of values. Aesthetic judgments “are mainly positive, that is, perceptions of good, moral judgments are mainly and fundamentally negative, or perceptions of evil…in the perception of beauty, our judgment is necessarily intrinsic and based on the character of the immediate experience, and never consciously on the idea of an eventual utility in the object, judgments about moral worth, on the contrary, are always based, when they are positive, upon the consciousness of benefits probably involved.”

“Morality is a means and not an end; that it is the price of human non-adaptation, and the consequence of the original sin of unfitness. It is the compression of human conduct within the narrow limits of the safe and possible. Remove danger, remove pain, remove the occasion of pity, and the need of morality is gone. To say “thou shalt not” would then be impertinence.”

If we think about it we can see herein why our moral consciousness recedes as our luxuries increase, and we can see why caring for another is more the characteristic of those who have little and is of lesser value to those who have much.

Quotes from The Sense of Beauty: Being The Outlines of Aesthetic Theory by George Santayana
 

Mole

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
20,284
This is a great thread!!

My values have been evolving more and more lately. So these are all subject to change/refinement.

1. Treat others as you wish to be treated. This really encompasses everything in life.

2. Responsibility and accountability. Not taking responsibility for others, and fully taking responsibility for yourself. Avoiding the blame game and victimhood. Trying to abandon the mindset of "That person makes me so mad!" And realizing that no, YOU are making yourself mad.

3. Acceptance and forgiveness. People will do very hurtful things. If I am not willing to forgive them, then all I am really truly doing is hurting myself. I have just recently begun to understand that forgiveness does NOT mean you condone someones actions. All it means is that you have come to terms with what has happened, and you are letting it go. The more I have been putting this into practice, the better I feel!!

Well, no one could ever accuse you of being artless.
 

mippus

you are right
Joined
Jan 15, 2008
Messages
906
MBTI Type
Intp
Enneagram
5w6
Independence
Honesty
Fun

Child of the early 90'ies :)
 
Top