Die waarde van waardes: ’n christelikfilosofiese besinning oor die aard en rigtinggewende gesag van waardes
PDF

Keywords

Confessional Pluralism
North-West University
Value Education
Value Philosophy
Values

Abstract

The value of values: a christian-philosophical reflection on the nature and directional power of values

To counteract the crisis of direction in contemporary culture, added values to organisations, institutions or businesses are very popular nowadays. What exactly is meant by the concept “value”, however, is usually taken for granted. Even when an explanation is provided, it is usually done in very vague terms. For philosophically-minded people, this situation is unsatisfactory and problematic. Therefore the aim of this article is, from a christian-philosophical point of view, to arrive at more clarity on the question of what precisely the nature, status and directional power of values are. In a previous contribution in this journal, on the value system of the North-West University (NWU), this problem could not be solved satisfactorily, since it mainly focused on practical rather than theoretical aspects.

For a better appreciation of the value of reformational viewpoints on values, the investigation begins with a short review of the western history of philosophy. It is only against the backdrop of this historical review that the contribution of reformational thinkers can be fully understood. It then moves to a brief description of D.H. Th. Vollenhoven’s philosophy in order to determine the place of values in one’s view of reality as a whole. The third section deals with H.G. Stoker’s view on values, which clarifies the nature and power of values. An investigation of the viewpoints of J.P.A. Mekkes, J. Olthuis, S. Fowler, J.J. Venter and D.F.M. Strauss provides further clarification enable a formulation of some statements about values which could clarify the current confusion about values, that of the NWU included. Since general values are not capable of providing clear normative direction in multi-religious and multi-cultural institutions, the last section reflects on an alternative way to solve the problems of the NWU as well as other institutions and organisations which have to accommodate different viewpoints. A brief review concludes the study.
https://doi.org/10.4102/koers.v75i4.104
PDF

Copyright information

  • Ownership of copyright in terms of the Work remains with the authors.
  • The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the Work, provided attribution is given to the place and detail of original publication, as set out in the official citation of the Work published in the journal. The retained right specifically includes the right to post the Work on the authors’ or their institutions’ websites or institutional repository.

Publication and user license

  • The authors grant the title owner and the publisher an irrevocable license and first right and perpetual subsequent right to (a) publish, reproduce, distribute, display and store the Work in  any form/medium, (b) to translate the Work into other languages, create adaptations, summaries or extracts of the Work or other derivative works based on the Work and exercise all of the rights set forth in (a) above in such translations, adaptations, summaries, extracts and derivative works, (c) to license others to do any or all of the above, and (d) to register the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for the Definitive Work.
  • The authors acknowledge and accept the user licence under which the Work will  be published as set out in https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (Creative Commons Attribution License South Africa)
  • The undersigned warrant that they have the authority to license these publication rights and that no portion of the copyright to the Work has been assigned or licensed previously to any other party.

Disclaimer: The publisher, editors and title owner accept no responsibility for any statement made or opinion expressed by any other person in this Work. Consequently, they will not be liable for any loss or damage sustained by any reader as a result of his or her action upon any statement or opinion in this Work. 
In cases where a manuscript is NOT accepted for publication by the editorial board, the portions of this agreement regarding the publishing licensing shall be null and void and the authors will be free to submit this manuscript to any other publication for first publication.

Our copyright policies are author-friendly and protect the rights of our authors and publishing partners.