T1
conceptual inquiry regarding meaning » value » the good (in itself) / the intrinsically valuable
The term good is used here synonymously with the term valuable, where valuable means that which has value now just because it will continue to have value in the future. The good, then, is that which can't possibly not have value. There will never be a situation in which it is not of value.
Value is determined with respect to an end. And what is an end? We might alternately conceive of it in a number of ways. An end might be a state of perfection, whether that means a perfect harmony between parts or perfect form within an entity of a specific type. The perfection of harmony consists in a rhythmic match of change between two or more changing things. Perfection of form consists in the degree to which a paricular thing of that form matches an ideal. An end can also be thought of in terms of the realization of potential. Something with a function can be better or worse at performing that function. Or something with an inherent set of capabilities will have reached its potential when it has fully actualized that set of capabilities. This idea of an end as the realization of potential may be thought of in terms of aim or purpose. And if that aim is achived or purpose is fulfilled, that thing has realized its potential and become completely good.
Yet it's conceivable that there are such things whose forms can only be contingently ideal, since the ideal is always changing. And these same things might have abilities that are open ended—that can never be fully realized because with each step more abilities/capabilites are acquired. Perfection can never be reached; the realization of potential is never final. What then? For such things, perhaps the end is internal consistency, and internal harmony, or the perfection of a process of growth.
But let's consider some ways an end can be conceived. An end can be variously conceived as...
- completion—e.g., a puzzle with no missing pieces
- harmony—e.g., when dance partners are fully in tune with each other, matching each other's movements by attending to their seemlessness
- fulfilling a purpose—e.g. we call a knife good when it cuts well
- perfection as achieving an ideal—e.g., the idea of a circle is a perfect circle
- consistency—e.g., when none of one's judgments conflict with any of one's other judgments
- perfection in process—e.g., consistent, assured growth
- and so on
In each of these cases, value is measured with respect to an end variously defined. The good in itself is thus an end in itself, however that's conceived.
With respect to the I and O-phases, the T-node is experiencer as dynamic and durational point of view, respectively. This suggests that, formally, that which is good in itself will be a continuous process of self-transformation—perfection in the process of becoming itself. With reference to the L-phase, it's the sociological component that combines with R's psychological component to together represent recognition conditions.
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| blue | self/part; psychological |
| green | dynamic/reciprocity; sociological |
| red | world/whole; physiological |
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T (patient) of M (subjectivity) in O (intelligibility)
- a durational point of view, undergoing experience
- There's no room here between ourselves and that which we experience qualitatively. The ability to step back from our qualitative experiences in a reflective mode is the part of us involved in objectivity, but insofar as we continue to undergo the experiences even as we reflect upon them, a part of us changes with them and identifies with them. T of M is that part of us that identifies with our ever-changing qualitative experiences.
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T (the good) of 'valuable' in A (value)
- the good in itself; the intrinsically valuable
- The term valuable is used here in a specific way, referring to projected possibilities. Something is valuable just insofar as it has value going forth. It's a futural notion, but it doesn't involve the future as separate from the present. We're going forth from the present, so that which is valuable helps us make the next step from now. There's a transformation occurring in making this step. The transformation is a type of growth. So, that which is valuable in itself might be thought of as the process of beneficial growth. As such, it can't not be valuable. The question may arise, what makes growth beneficial? The details of that will depend on what's growing, but the general pattern equates beneficial growth with the process of the active integration of parts to wholes. When we're the part, this means the active integration of self to world, or experiencer to experienced, where self and world (experiencer and experienced) are transforming as they're integrating, growing into something that transcends both.
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T (dynamic) of J (experiencer) in I (reality)
- experiencer as dynamic
- experiencer as a process of transformation
- In this case, an experiencer isn't a thing, but a process. Perhaps it's akin to Hume's bundle theory of the self ("...when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other..." [Treatise 1.4.6 SB252])?
- Inasmuch as self is part and world is whole, dynamic is a process reconciling parts and wholes, where the process of reconciliation changes each, hermeneutically.
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T (sociological) of E (recognition) in L (conditions)
- As one component of recognition conditions—together with R (psychological)—this is what makes sharing possible. Similar to how T functions in M, where experiencer (T) and experienced (R) collapse into an identity, T here is that which allows us to identify with another. Recognition is a kind of empathy, and empathy is a kind of identification with. It's a sharing. This is the activity involved in sociological conditions: sharing and exchange. Reciprocal sharing/exchange occurs during the process of integration, where the whole to which the part is being integrated changes through the integration. There's a mutual transformation occurring—a mutually beneficial process of growth.
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