Value System Search

Introduction

Value System Search provides off-the-shelf value principles that are designed to be bolted onto your existing belief system and value intuitions. We also offer a bespoke service which provides a personal fitting for you. All you have to do is to complete your Value Map, then leave the rest to us. Whichever service you opt for, we guarantee that these will turbo-charge your life with a boost of purpose and direction, or your money back!

Academic moral philosophers analyse different value principles according to whether they fit in with their value intuitions, and so there is already a large literature about this. Each of these philosophers seem to assume that everyone shares the same value intuitions and background beliefs as them, which is why they think that it is possible to have a debate about them. However, people certainly differ in their background beliefs, and may also differ in their value intuitions, which may be why moral philosophy does not get very far. It would therefore seem to make sense to instead proceed in a more flexible way. Also, they do not conduct this analysis in as systematic manner as Value System Analysis which lays out all of the values, beliefs and the arguments that connect them in a clear way.


Objectives

The basic objectives of Value System Search are to:

• Help people identify suitable value principles to adopt: you need to find value principles that best suit your beliefs about the world and your existing value intuitions.

• Help people to assess the suitability of their existing value principles: even if you already have value principles, if there are areas of incoherence in your Value Map it may be that other value principles would be more useful for you. You therefore need to be able to easily find value principles that suit your own personal circumstances which you can compare.

Method

The method is to provide a website containing various kinds of value system. For a given combination of value intuitions and beliefs, each value system would provide the value principle that is best able to provide a reflective equilibrium for you i.e that can justify and explain the value intuitions and is consistent with one's wider belief system. If you believe in a monotheistic God, the value principle is to do His will, since He is the source of intrinsic value in the universe. However, which version of monotheism (e.g. Christianity, Islam) is most appropriate for you may well depend upon your value intuitions. If you are an atheist and have a value intuition that nature is intrinsically valuable in itself, it may be that the value principle of unified diversity is the most suitable for you. Whereas if you are an atheist who does not see nature as intrinsically valuable, then the value principle of happiness of the greatest number may be most suitable for you, since this only sees nature as having instrumental value in making sentient beings happy.

It would make sense for the Value System Search website to be closely linked to the Theory Mapping website so that someone who has worked out their belief system through the latter website, can then conduct the Value System Search to find an appropriate value system.