Smittcamp Honors College Colloquium onValues February 12, 2009

David Ross, Ph.D.Professor Emeritus: French, Portuguese California State University, Fresno http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~davidro/

PPT assistance by Anne-Marie Ross.

PPT originally presented at CSUF to nine doctorate students from Tamaulipas, Mexico, July 28, 2008 by:

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Your College Experience, by John Gardner

1. He asks the students to write their values on a piece of paper, anonymously. Then he collects and reads what the students have written.

1. Usually students write down the same values: family, honor, religion, faith, justice, democracy, freedom or liberty, education, work.

Chapter 15: Values: personal, moral, societal and national.

Professor Ross begins the lesson this way :

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3. Gardner’s purpose is to teach a broader notion of what is meant by “values.”

4. Gardner defines values as:

Atitudes or beliefs that we choose and affirm with pride, that we confirm

through our actions and behavior.

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5. Gardner’s key points are:

As a result of a university education students must realize from the beginning that:

• Very probably they will adopt some new values;

• They need to learn to be tolerant of others’ values in order to function better in a multiracial, multicultural, pluralistic, and diverse society.

• They should concern themselves with the common good of society and occupy themselves with the resolution of social injustices, with society’s contradictions, and with value “dualisms.”

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-- The U.S. Is world leader in:

Homicides perpetrated by minors.

-- Of the 18 most industrialized countries in the world, there exists in the U.S. :

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The largest gulf between rich and poor.

At least 14 per cent of the US population has no health insurance.

““I believe that if a person is poor, it’s because I believe that if a person is poor, it’s because God wants him to be poor, and that if a person is God wants him to be poor, and that if a person is rich it is because God wants him to be rich.” rich it is because God wants him to be rich.”

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(2005)

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The Enlightenment and Fundamental American Values:

The Declaration de Independence (1776)

• Self-government

• Equality

• Life

• Liberty

• Pursuit of happiness

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Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence

….life, liberty and the Pursuit of happiness…

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The Constitution (1787), preamble:

• Justice, rule of law

• Domestic tranquility

• National defenseNational defense

• General welfare

• Liberty

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

“… in order to form a more perfect union …”

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The Bill of Rights (1791):

• Freedom of speech

• Freedom of assembly

• Freedom of religion

• Freedom of petition

• The right to bear arms

• and others …

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¿Have these documents influenced other nations?19

The interpretation of basic American values continues, and the discussion is often heated, dynamic, and vital.

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Our Endangered Values:

America’s Moral Crisis,

Jimmy Carter

(2005)

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Heritage: movement toward a more progressive, moderate, modern, secular politics,

society, and religion.

Enlightenment: reason, humanism, tolerance, deism, natural religion .

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Rousseau

Diderot

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Candide by Voltaire,

1759

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Question: Are there other American values that we have not mentioned?

What do you think?

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Professional athletes, coaches, and professors: who is paid the most and what does this say about society’s values?

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Conclusions: Fundamental American Values

From the nation’s beginning, the most important American values have been:

1. Representative government;2. Individual liberty;3. The pursuit of happiness;4. The general welfare.

Americans appear to value individual liberty more than collective social justice.

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American Values: Opposing Viewpoints, ed, Mary E. Williams, New York: Thompson (2005).

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Questions Concerning Values

1. What are values, according to John Gardner?

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Values are important attitudes or beliefs that:

we accept by choice, affirm with pride, and express in our actions and behavior.

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2. Are there positive and negative values?

Which are emphasized by Gardner?

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Gardner emphasizes positive values.

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3. Is there a relationship between one’s values and one’s behavior?

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Yes, we act on the basis of our values:

as an individual, as a member of a group, and as a citizen of a nation.

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4. Where do values come from?

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We acquire our values from our experiences:

family, religion, friends, education, media, reflection

Gardner refers to the“human condition.”

What is the human condition?

How are values related to it?

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“The human condition encompasses all of the experiences of being human. As mortal entities, there are a series of biologically determined events that are common to most human lives, and some that are inevitable to all. The ongoing way in which humans react or cope with theseevents is the human condition …” Extracted from Wikipedia definition.

The creation of values is part of the human experience.

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6. What are the different types of values?

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Gardner cites moral, esthetic and performance values.

He also distinguishes between personal, societal (group) and national values.

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7. How may values change in the process of education, especially at the post-secondary level?

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Based on experience and the educational process, an individual may choose to retain core values, perhaps abandon some, and to adopt new and additional ones.

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8. What do you suppose Dr. Ross’ values are as a university professor and intellectual?

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He values the life of the mind:

discipline, hard work, dependability,

critical thinking, intellectual integrity,

the search for truth, the acquisition of

knowledge through life-long learning.

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9. What do you consider the fundamental values of American society to be?

How would you explain them to someone from another country who has not visited the US?

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Gardner cites two key American values:

equality of opportunity,

and tolerance.

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10. What are the liberal, humanistic, secular values of the 18th Century Enlightenment enshrined in the US Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights?

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Self-government, equality, life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

Justice, domestic tranquility, defense, general welfare, liberty …l

Freedoms: speech, press, religion, petition, bear arms, due process.

Guarantees against: unreasonable searches, self-incrimination, cruel and unusual punishment.

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11. College educated individuals usually become more tolerant of others; why is this beneficial to society?

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E pluribus unum:

Ours is a multicultural, pluralistic, democratic society.

In addition to some fundamental “mainstream values,” there has to be widespread acceptance of differences: ethnic, religious, sexual orientation.

Employers and laws require it.

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12. What does Gardner mean by “cultural relativism?”

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All cultural, individual, societal and national values and practices are equally valid. We should not judge aspects of another culture from the biases of our own.

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13. Are there reasonable or even necessary limits to tolerance? Circumstances when cultural relativism does not apply?

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Unacceptable, aggressive, illegal behavior; behavior that violates basic rights as announced in the UN Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

Cultural practices than demean, harm, deny basic rights, including the mistreatment of women and children,female genital excision. Slavery.

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14. What “value dualisms” or apparent contradictions in US society does Gardner mention?

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Although the US is the richest nation, it tolerates the worst poverty among industrialized nations. In the US there is a larger gap between rich and poor than exists in other developed countries.

Gardner, pp. 299-300.

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15. What is the chief difference between an American and a European or Candian interpretation of liberty, freedom and equality?

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In the US individual liberty is stressed,whereas in Europe and in Canada society’s collective well-being is valued and provided for. For example, European countries and Canada consider basic health coverage a right.

Do you think that there may be -- in considering universalhuman values -- a middle ground upon which moderate to progressive Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, humanists, agnostics, atheists and others can agree? What about the following? Protecting democracy, civil liberties, civil rights, human rights, women’s rights, the environment, planetarysustainability; working for peace; ending poverty, colonialism, racism, homophobia, xenophobia,and the growing gap between rich and poor nationally and globally. Identify any of the foregoing issues to which you cannot Subscribe and explain why.