Eric B
ⒺⓉⒷ
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2008
- Messages
- 3,621
- MBTI Type
- INTP
- Enneagram
- 548
- Instinctual Variant
- sp/sx
Fi is not a "value system". The value system is a PRODUCT of Fi.
As others have said, we all have value systems. We don't all pay attention to them, however. Functions or function-attitudes are perspectives or interpreters of cognitive data.
All events have implicit in them tangible (just what it is as an object perceivable through the senses), conceptual (what it means), technical (impersonal properties of it) and humane (how it affects people, including "worth", emotions, ethics, values, etc), which can be engaged through the object directly, or through a subjective blueprint.
So the perspective of Fi is likely to pay attention to personal value systems through its subjective humane focus (While Fe pays more attention to group value systems, which is an objective humane focus).
As a Ti dom., I never really payed attention to any "value systems", yet I do have a strong emotional reaction when they are violated. I usually didn't evaluate why I felt that way, until the persistence of the situation, or lowering patience, consequences of my reactions, etc. force me to look at them. And then I would often feel very "gooey" probing into myself like on a humane level like that. It makes me feel like a weak, vulnerable creature. I did get a bit more used to it as time went on, and this whole personality theory (type, temperament, functions and archetypal compexes) helps give it a more Ti-approved logical framework.
I had to grapple with that when solidifying my type four years ago. I was aware that I had things that I valued, which I would be very upset when something happened to them. Also, if someone criticized me for things I valued (like "you're too into that" or "you only care about your interests", etc.) It sounded like only something a "Feeler" would be fazed by, which Thinkers are supposed to be completely "detached" or "objective".
However, I would initially be in total denial of the "value" I placed on things, and the criticism (of basically "MISevaluating importance", as Berens put it) always felt like evil-accusing, guilt stirring judgment.
So this was a typical "shadow"-denial of something I was almost totally unconscious of.
This too seemed like "Feeling" since many descriptions of Feeling types mention being concerned about how others see them, and again, Thinking is supposed to not care about that.
The things valued themselves are not unconscious. But it's still hard for me to highlight a particular "value system". And when I can, it seems to be tied up in negative reactions to painful memories. Stuff like "fairness", for example.
Making it worse, you had a pair of influential "experts" in some discussion sites who promoted this whole "Fi=value" business, where anyone who is not an always calm "vulcan" (or selfless caretaker) and they react emotionally from a personal "value" being violated, must therefore be an Fi "user".
But an Fi-preferrer (and mature TJ types) would be more aware of these internal value systems. Fi simply sorts through the data, interpreting it in terms of its affect on humans through a subjective model of humane principles. This model is the "value system". Fi is just the interpreter of it, or what brings it to consciousness, or evaluates according to it.
