ETHICS LESSON 4
The Value of Ethics
Moral Dilemmas How to Solve them? Generally, to
resolve moral dilemmas we often consult our values
for guidance.
❑ Examples of value systems are Hornedo’s values of
monastics, economics, and politics.
❑ Christian teachings of material and spiritual values,
❑ Max Scheler’s hierarchy of values
Christian Value System
Source: Teachings of Jesus Christ
2 recognized values: Material and Spiritual values
Christian Ethical Values
Christian Ethics
• Christian ethics, also known as moral theology, is a
multi-faceted ethical system: it is a virtue ethics which
focuses on building moral character, and a
deontological ethic which emphasizes duty.
• It also incorporates natural law ethics, which is built
on the belief that it is the very nature of humans –
created in the image of God and capable of morality,
cooperation, rationality, discernment and so on – that
informs how life should be lived, and that awareness of
sin does not require special revelation.
• Christian ethics derives its metaphysical core from
the Bible, seeing God as the ultimate source of all
power. Evidential, Reformed and volitional
epistemology are the three most common forms of
Christian epistemology.
• Christian ethicists use reason, philosophy, natural
law, the social sciences, and the Bible to formulate
modern interpretations of those principles; Christian
ethics applies to all areas of personal and societal
ethics.
• Christian ethics emphasizes morality. The law and
the commandments are set within the context of
devotion to God but are deontological standards
defining what this morality is. The prophets of the Old
Testament show God as rejecting all unrighteousness
and injustice and commending those who live moral
lives.
• In tension with this, there is also "a deep expression
of God's love for undeserving sinners".
• The apostle Paul refers to this as grace: "being treated
as innocent when one is guilty"
• Part of the biblical legacy of Christian ethics is the
necessity somehow to do justice to both law and grace.
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• Author Stanley Rudman asserts that human rights (as
defined post–WWII) is the language through which the
Christian ethic is able to relate these concepts to the
world.
• In a convergence of opinion among Catholics,
Lutherans, Reformed, and others, this has led to a
support of human rights becoming common to all
varieties of Christian ethics.
1. Material Values
• Also known as values of the world
• The world teaches us that the more we have of them,
the better person we become
• The direction: toward the self (egoism)
• These are the values of
--- wealth
--- power
--- fame
2. Spiritual Values
• Also known as the values of the Gospel, the values of
the Kingdom
• Jesus teaches us the right attitude towards material
things:
• The direction: towards others (altruism)
• Use wealth for SHARING, to practice CHARITY, to
give it away
• Use power for SERVICE, to SACRIFICE FOR
OTHERS
• Use fame to INSPIRE OTHERS TO WORSHIP
Christian Values THE LORD, to LEAD PEOPLE TO
GOD
Max Scheler on Values
❑ Some values are more valuable than the others.
❑ Values are objective; they come from society
❑ We are expected to sacrifice a lower value for a
higher value
Max Scheler’s Hierarchy of Values
• First, the longer the value lasts, the higher it is. For
example, while the value of pleasure lasts for the
duration of the feeling of pleasure, the mental value
remains after the disappearance of the circumstances.
(timelessness);
• Second, the harder it is to reduce the quality of the
value as its carrier (Werttrager) divides or the harder
it is to increase the quality of the value as its carrier
enlarges, the higher the value is. For example, while
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the value of material goods reduces as the goods
divide, the value of mental goods is indivisible and not
related to the number of people concerned.
(indivisiblity);
• Third, the higher value becomes the base for the
lower value. The fewer other values the value has as its
base, the higher it is.(independence);
• Fourth, there is an intrinsic relationship between the
rank of the value and the depth of satisfaction from its
realization. In other words, the deeper the satisfaction
connected to the value is, the higher the value is. For
example, the physical satisfaction is strong but
shallow. On the contrary, the satisfaction from artistic
meditation is a deep experience. The depth of
satisfaction is not related to its strength. (depth of
satisfaction);
• Fifth, the less the sense of the value is related to the
existence of its carrier, the higher the value is. For
example, the value of pleasure has significance in
relation to the sense of sensuality. The value of life
exists for those with the sense of life, but the moral
value exists absolutely and independently from those
who feel it. (absoluteness).
Hierarchy of Values
In accordance with principles stated in the previous
slides, Scheler classified the values into the following
four categories(from the bottom to the top):
(1) the value of pleasure and displeasure(the emotional
value )
(2) the value of the sense of life(and welfare as a
subsidiary value to it),
(3) the mental value(perception, beauty, justice),
(4) the value of holiness.
HOLY and UNHOLY (God)
SPIRITUAL(Moral)
VITAL (LIFE/SUCCESS)
SENSORY (PLEASURE)
SENSORY: The Lowest Value
•Values that cater to the senses, satisfy one’s yearning
for comfort and pleasure
•Pleasurable or not pleasurable?
•Examples: Our desire to eat delicious food, join
parties, stay in air-conditioned rooms …
•But being the lowest form of values, we are expected
to sacrifice them when confronted with a higher value
Vital
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ETHICS LESSON 4
•Values that pertain to:
• life or death? Health or sickness?
•Success or failure?
•Examples: when we stop eating sweet foods because
we have diabetes, focus on our needs instead of wants,
review in order to pass our exams, etc.
•We sacrifice pleasure for them, but these values may
be sacrificed when confronted with a higher value
Spiritual
• Values that pertain to:
• Moral or immoral? Ethical or unethical? Justice or
injustice?
• It is the pursuit of: Common good, freedom, human
dignity, honesty, loyalty, friendship, love
• This is manifested by heroes who sacrifice their lives
for their country, by honest men who return the money
they found even if they need it badly, by students who
resist the temptation to cheat, by politicians who
govern according to the principles of good governance,
etc.
Holy and unholy: The Highest value
•Values that pertain to:
•Belief or unbelief?
•God or other?
•For Scheler, man must be willing to sacrifice
everything for the sake of God. For instance, in the
Bible, Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac
just to please God.
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 ETHICS LESSON 4

Nicolai Hartmann
Scheler's idea of values was succeeded by Nicolai
Hartmann (1882-1950), who left several creative
papers on this subject. Emphasizing that we just started
the study of values, he said that it was very difficult to
decide on the ranks of values. He also said that the
hierarchy of values was formed objectively and never
changed.

Nicolai Hartmann’s Layers of Existence and

Rearrangement of Values
Nicolai Hartmann’s Views on Ethical Values
• He talked about the relationship between the height
and the strength of the value. He said that the higher
value was weak, but the lower value was strong. The
higher value is structurally complex, but the lower
value is elementary. Something elementary is strong.
•The betrayal of the lower value is a more serious sin
than the betrayal of the higher value. The realization of
the higher value is more valuable than that of the lower
value. For example, murder is the most serious
crime, but the respect for others' lives is not the
highest virtue
•The property is the value lower than kindness, but the
infringement of the property is more severely
condemned than unfriendliness. The betrayal of the
lower value is shameful, but the realization of the
lower value is taken for granted.
•Even if one betrays the higher value, he(or she) will
not lose honor. However, if one realizes the higher
value, he (or she) will be praised. Thus the height of
the value and its strength are different from each other.
•This can easily be understood if we get to know his
idea of layered existence in which he understood the
world in layers and divided the world of existence into
four levels, which constituted four layers of
existence
•He said that there were

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(1)the layer of mental existence,
(2)the layer of conscious existence,
(3)the layer of live existence and
(4)the layer of physical existence.
•In the layer of mental existence are the humans, in the
layer of conscious existence are the higher animals, in
the layer of live existence are the plants, and in the
layer of physical existence are the lifeless things.
(1) The humans include all the four layers of existence
in themselves and are understood as concrete objects
assembling these in a peculiar way.
(2) The higher animals are the aggregates of the layers
of physical, live and conscious existence.
(3) The plants are the aggregates of the layers of
physical and live existence.
(4) The lifeless things include only the layer of
physical existence.
Nicolai Hartmann’s Anti-Values
His anti-values can be classified into the following six
categories by the ranks from the lowest one:
(1) The act of destroying the earth, the act of
annihilating the mankind and all the other living
organisms
(2) The act of mass killing of people by initiating a war
or committing treason
(3) The act of murdering or causing to death a human
(4) The act of damaging the body of a human
(5) The act of greatly harming the society
(6) All the other crimes not covered by the above
When we are preoccupied by the evil, ugly, dirty anti-
values which are committed by humans, it is easy to
have prejudices or misperceptions that everybody in
this world seems to be wrong and evil. Those who
usually handle offenders in the court are prone to
suspect others as offenders
E . Durkheim
On the contrary, if we observe the humans and the
society, we cannot ignore the fact that the human has
a dual aspect.
E. Durkheim (1858-1917), a French positive
sociologist, advocated the dual nature of the human.
E. Durkheim and Values
❑ While the human is a selfish being with desires,
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ETHICS LESSON 4
he(or she) is also a moral, religious being.
❑ While the human is a being of sense and sensual
thinking, he (or she) is also a being of reason and
conceptual thinking.
❑ There is a confrontation between holiness and
filthiness, and there is a duality of the individual and
the society.
❑ There is a confrontation between selfishness and
morals in the human mind.
❑In the society, there are good persons and bad ones,
good deeds and crimes, and justice and injustice.
PLATO’S THEORY OF FORMS
❑ What is 'real?' Is the physical world the 'real' world?
Or is there a deeper reality beyond the physical world?
Plato offered an answer in his Theory of Forms.
❑ In basic terms, Plato's Theory of Forms asserts that
the physical world is not really the 'real' world;
instead, ultimate reality exists beyond our physical
world. Plato discusses this theory in a few different
dialogues, including the most famous one, called 'The
Republic.' It is also likely that Plato inherited some of
this theory from his mentor, Socrates.
Plato’s Theory of Forms
Plato's Theory of Forms asserts that the physical realm
is only a shadow, or image, of the true reality of the
Realm of Forms.
PHYSICAL REALM
- The physical realm is the material stuff we see and
interact with on a daily basis; this physical realm is
changing and imperfect, as we know all too well.
SPIRITUAL REALM
- The spiritual realm, however, exists beyond the
physical realm. Plato calls this spiritual realm the
Realm of Forms (also called the Realm of Ideas or
Realm of Ideals).
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