Are Values Still Modern?

Abstract

There are many values. The fact of the manifoldness of values has taken us some distance in the use of the concept of the term “value.” We now use the word “values” normatively-appellatively: when we wish that everyone should share common values. But we have grown up with the social experience that in society no fundamental values are traded any more, but many small ones.

With the disappearance of the expression of values, an expression of acting from a fundamental conviction also disappears. Our actions are more likely to be carried out in a rule- or institution-opportunistic manner. This does not mean that we become more opportunistic in general, but merely that we adapt our convictions more quickly to what is negotiated in social communications in terms of opinion, validity, and relevance. Translated into the language of values, this would mean that we change the values we share more quickly.