Have you ever defined your core values?

[CitizenErased]

I don't think I could if I tried. This is actually how I distinguished myself as an INTP rather than an INFP or INTJ. Those types both tend to have core values that they are completely aware of. The only word I can think of that describes my general outlook is "critical." Criticism isn't a value, though; it's a way of perceiving values.

I suppose if I had to pick something I'd say contrast. I'm naturally inclined to question and challenge the views of those around me. I ended up with such unique views not because they come from within, but because I get so fed up with the notion of "common sense" and "objective morality" that my mind just kinda says, "f*** it, I'm going to disagree with that."

Yes. Yes. Yes. Being critical of my surroundings, comparing to what I have stored in my head is a daily activity. Even when sleeping I analyze what happen during the day and have epiphanies between dreams. "I like this idea/Never again/That thing is dangerous/etc"

What I "have", I don't know if I should call them values, they are more like ideas or principles I choose to live by. I don't care too much about being caring, 100% honest or whatever. I choose all of that given the situation. What I never change are these ideas I have for myself that save me from so much fuss (and sometimes create it, but well...)
They would be:

- To be good or bad, but not average. I hate being mediocre at something. I suck at sports, perfect. I'm good at artistic activities, perfect. I'm normal at physics, we have a problem. I may never touch physics again. It saves me in the sense that I do spend time on things I know I can make a difference at.

- To be true to myself. I'm weird in every possible sense (though on the outside I look human) and I choose to live according to my weirdness, never playing a different role to attract/get closer to people. If they like it, perfect. If not, I go on with my life.

- To be independent. I don't like depending on others, and I HATE when others depend on me. I don't like carrying dead weight.

- To be happy, to achieve happiness. I don't know why I'm on the world (as human, I don't think I have a purpose). The species appeared, they will "turn off" someday and nothing is going to change. The universe keeps being there, silent. So I don't understand why humans made the impossible to complicate their lives to be miserable: money, ugly jobs, etc. As animals we would have need a refuge and food. Consciousness is a bitch. So I refuse to spend this life that I have being miserable just because society turned to be that way.

- To be always curious, never stop learning. When I stop for any reason, I start feeling dumb and without energy, so this is like fuel.

There may be more principles but they are not as general as these.

 

[kyuuei]

I have been working on the question, "Define your moral values in 2 sentences." I think I about have it down.. sort of.

I am all about honor, respect, and active involvement. I believe in trying your best, the army values as lame as that sounds, and constantly working on yourself instead of assuming 'who you are' is a static thing that cannot change and must be accepted by others.

 

[Kanra Jest]

I have been working on the question, "Define your moral values in 2 sentences." I think I about have it down.. sort of.

I am all about honor, respect, and active involvement. I believe in trying your best, the army values as lame as that sounds, and constantly working on yourself instead of assuming 'who you are' is a static thing that cannot change and must be accepted by others.

But what is honor to you? Everyone's honor may be different based off subjectivity. Culture. Codes. It would just be what you feel, and learn from your surroundings. What is taught. Or at least that is how most values are that people have. If society crumbled values would crumble under the wait of primitive survival instincts.

 

[Santosha]

I guess I don't try to define them, for any kind of self-identification. I don't care as much about saying "I am" any more because I reached a point where I began to believe that who/what I am, living in this life, is just a kind-of energy split, from a greater consciousness. And once I started thinking that I cant know fully who I am, it just became a lot less important to see who I am on a material level, with the veil over me.

Nor do I define them to stay consistent. I don't care about consistency too much now. Sometimes I think that people want you to stay consistent to allay their own insecurities. When I introspected enough, I started to realize that is why I liked consistency. It was safe. I wanted to know that I could count on people to be X so I could stay safe. I could control my environment and all the conditions in it because I needed conditions to be a certain way for me to be happy. I needed to know that my partner held (x) qualities, and my friends/family, etc. I did this because I believed that my happiness and power existed outside of myself. But these last few years, I've been confronted with situations where I couldn't control my conditions any more. And I had to learn how to shift my perspective, A lot. I guess this is why there are some people, living in prison or war-zones, that find a way to be more fulfilled and at peace than other people living in mansions, with endless resources.

But I do care a lot about freedom. My own and others. Being free to be who someone is, and to do what is in their heart. To feel how they feel, think how they think, behave as they chose. And so I try to not get in the way of it too much, and I actively avoid anyone that gets in mine. All the 'should-ing' and expecting, right and wrong, bad and good, it is such a drag.

So obviously I also care a lot about having fun, and feeling good.

And interestingly, when I am feeling good and joyful and free.. many of the values that so many admire.. like kindness and generosity, honesty and respect, love and support... they just seem to flow out of me really easily. Like, I don't 'do' this because I think I am supposed to. It's like a side-effect of feeling, really good.

It's weird the way that works.

 

[kyuuei]

But what is honor to you? Everyone's honor may be different based off subjectivity. Culture. Codes. It would just be what you feel, and learn from your surroundings. What is taught. Or at least that is how most values are that people have. If society crumbled values would crumble under the wait of primitive survival instincts.

It's pretty subjective, isn't it? It changes shapes all the time, and people mold it to fit their purposes.. it's very cultural as well, even within cultures. I tend to subscribe to a more old-world style Japan when I think of Honor, blended with the military's definition of Honor.. but the reality is, being honorable to yourself first and to others second is important to me. A lot trails along on honor's heels for me, like humility, a humble nature, and introspection... but I don't think honor and respect are quite the same things, as I feel honor has a more hard-fast persona for me (i.e. it doesn't matter what feels better to the other person, I do not do x because it is dishonorable), and respect is more flexible (i.e. it is respectful to not say "you're fat" to a person who is asking for it, knowing that they aren't really seeking that answer and there are more respectful answers that negate that cycle to give) for me. I don't have to agree with something at all to respect it. I think respect more lets me step outside of myself, and honor tends to ground me within myself.

 

[entropie]

Reason and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AMqm6UmG4w

by that i am omniscient

 

[Mole]

My core values are deep relaxation, excitement, and joy.

My core values arise from my nature which is described as over excitable, click on Overexcitability and the Gifted « SENG

I am over excitable because I have a high response to stimulae.

Tragically I have spent most to my life using personal tension to rein in my high response to stimulae as it makes most people uncomfortable. Fortunately I discovered Relief Without Drugs - The Self Management of Tension, Anxiety, and Pain by Ainslie Mears, click on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainslie_Meares

When I deeply relax, I let go my personal tension and my excitement is released, and when I find safe and productive ways to experience my excitement, I experience joy.

 

[Kanra Jest]

It's pretty subjective, isn't it? It changes shapes all the time, and people mold it to fit their purposes.. it's very cultural as well, even within cultures. I tend to subscribe to a more old-world style Japan when I think of Honor, blended with the military's definition of Honor.. but the reality is, being honorable to yourself first and to others second is important to me. A lot trails along on honor's heels for me, like humility, a humble nature, and introspection... but I don't think honor and respect are quite the same things, as I feel honor has a more hard-fast persona for me (i.e. it doesn't matter what feels better to the other person, I do not do x because it is dishonorable), and respect is more flexible (i.e. it is respectful to not say "you're fat" to a person who is asking for it, knowing that they aren't really seeking that answer and there are more respectful answers that negate that cycle to give) for me. I don't have to agree with something at all to respect it. I think respect more lets me step outside of myself, and honor tends to ground me within myself.

Interesting. It is subjective, and something that spawns either from culture, society (external). Or from within (internal). Perhaps even a bit of both. But I believe the majority of people's values spawn from externally understood things.

If I were to describe my own values they would be internal. All values others have passed through my own inner network, are picked apart, analyzed for it's logical basis and understanding. Since I value logic over emotion.
My code would be from within, as I couldn't care less of traditional or cultural understanding and taboos unless I myself see the goods and bads of it.

I believe in strength over weakness, standing up for oneself without needing others. But at the same time I know there are always exceptions. Things like rape, animal abuse, hitting woman, or even bringing a knife to a fist fight. I don't merely hate because it makes me angry. But because it is downright petty, weak, imbalanced, unfair. When someone cheats on a test, cheats in a game, they've proven themselves the lesser and given a false strength that doesn't exist. Those things demean us instead of strengthen us, and when we instead live a life surviving and learning from all our mistakes, developing, growing, then we become all the better. But it also has a logical basis as we must become stronger and wiser as a species to survive.

In the case with animals they've always had an innocence to them that humanity does not so I have a soft spot for them, especially.

 

[Qlip]

I had no success at defining my core values. But I was intrigued at the idea of counting values. It seems kind of funny that the most extreme contrast to having 0 values, which would be disastrous, would be having 1 value which would be strangely unbalanced. I think people should have 3 values, no more, no less.

 

[uumlau]

I had no success at defining my core values. But I was intrigued at the idea of counting values. It seems kind of funny that the most extreme contrast to having 0 values, which would be disastrous, would be having 1 value which would be strangely unbalanced. I think people should have 3 values, no more, no less.

I know you're saying this kind of tongue-in-cheek, but there's something really important here. Having 0 values would probably mean that you can't even make decisions, since you don't value anything over anything else. Even animals have (instinctual) "values" that prompt particular behaviors, and some of those even resemble human values, like a dog valuing companionship and food (but not necessarily in that order!).

Having one value wouldn't be "unbalanced", but would actually be disastrous. With only one value, especially in a universe of humans with lots of different values, that one value would make you a fanatic: whichever moral you chose would ALWAYS outweigh all the other possible morals/values. There would no way to judge that maybe in THIS case, that one value is important, but in THAT case it would be unimportant.

Research done by Jonathan Haidt that he writes about in his book "The Righteous Mind" suggests that people have about 3 to 8 values to which they subscribe and weigh against each other. Another consideration is whether a particular value is "sacred", and one cannot easily have more than one sacred value, as they tend to conflict and only one can win out. I've not had a chance to explore that book in depth, yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Poki]

Biggest issues with my values is how situation dependent they are. Different things in different situations are valued differently, not to mention as I change and learn and grow they either change or become fine tuned. Why define and constantly update and revisit them definition wise when I can just live them.

 

[Pionart]

metalcore is shit, deathcore is shit, some grindcore is alright, all those round monkey core genres can go fuck off and try to make a shakespar or some shit

hardcore techno rave is the shit tho

 

[Lia_kat]

In no particular order.. creativity/individuality, compassion/empathy, gratefulness, curiosity, justice.

 

[Pionart]

In no particular order.. creativity/individuality, compassion/empathy, gratefulness, curiosity, justice.

Love? For those, for world, for self and evermore?

I think so.

 

[SilentWave]

I usually have 3 codes in mind, whether they count as values I don't know...
1- Do what your gut tells you
2- Don't screw over people
3- Keep your word

In most cases, 1 outweighs 2 and 3 individually, but 2+3 > 1. These are the things I check when doing whatever I'm doing (and they usually don't clash), but if we have to talk about values, from reading the responses, I would say:

1- Integrity and honesty
2- Most good for as many (effective altruism I guess)
3- Defending free will
4- Peace and harmony
5- Freedom to grow with one's own intention

The list is more of a way of which value leads to which, like the previous value is a prerequisite for the one following it from my point of view. If we are integral, honest, and strive for the good of as many people as possible, we will do our best to defend free will. This does not mean accepting all ideas no matter how horrid, but allowing people to express their ideas and realize what has lead to their current conclusions. It is a process of synthesizing to find a better way for as many of us as possible. So 1+2 => 3. If we defend others human rights, we will acquire an environment of peace and harmony, which would allow everyone to grow freely with their own intention. 3 => 4 => 5. I am sadly gullible enough to think that most of us were in one point of their lives trying to express ourselves without malicious intentions but some accidents happened and now the intention is malformed. A person is not born to be evil or good but themselves. We have needs and dreams and if we have the correct attitude, everyone can probably realize their true goals without murdering one another. Or at least, that is my wishful thinking.

 

[LovecraftianMonstrosity]

Have you ever defined your core values? Do you think you could reduce them to five? What makes those values more important than any others? Does it influence your decision making on a daily basis or not?

Yes, but there are the ones that are characteristic of me and the ones I would like to cultivate. For example, others have noted and I myself have noted that I need to develop patience, modesty, humility, and maturity but it can be hard. Sometimes I seem to do well for awhile and then the universe makes me aware of my own foibles/delusions if you will. Usually this entails desiring something to be other than how it is.