| | Tibor wrote, So now we are supposed to have these inborn values--one's we do not even understand because, of course, we haven't given them any mind yet--which guide our decisions. Why? Because we just happen to have these values--they just popped into being somehow. There are no inborn values. We are born, not with values, but with the capacity to value, which is realized once we become aware of reality and of our own needs and desires as living organisms. As for the choice to focus or not to focus, "an infant or a young child learns to focus his mind in the form of wanting to know something -- to understand clearly. That is the beginning from which a fully conscious, rational focus comes." (AR, Ayn Rand Answers, p. 154) In other words, the value motivating a child's initial choice to focus is the desire to know something, to arrive at a clearer understanding of it. But he has to recognize, at some level, that focusing his mind will help him to achieve that goal, otherwise there would be no point to his action, no purpose in choosing to focus his mind. Every choice, no matter how rudimentary, presupposes an awareness of an alternative which is the basis for the choice. In fact values--value judgments--presuppose an aware mind which had to come into focus at some point and it is this mental act, of focusing, that is free, undetermined by anything but our own mental effort or initiative, a true original act. You are talking about a higher level, conceptualized value judgment, which results from a process of rational deliberation, which can only come about if one first chooses to focus one's mind and raise one's level of awareness. But there has to be some lower level of awareness, as well as a rudimentary valuation, of the choice to focus in order for the choice to made. The child must choose to focus his mind (i.e., to raise his level of awareness) for the sake of some end or goal, e.g., to achieve a clearer understanding of something. That is the value motivating his choice. And some of us are on the ball with producing this awareness, this focus, while others are laggards and even remain so much of our lives. Why? Because some of us recognize the importance of exerting this kind of mental effort, whereas others do not. Because that is how we choose to be--that's what's up to us, alone as agents of our most essential, distinctive human behavior. Yes, it's up to us, but that doesn't mean that we make the choice with no awareness of its nature and for no reason, purpose or value.
- Bill
|
|
