Day 4 – IN SEARCH OF LOST VALUE
Day 4:
In Search of Lost Value
Live Like an Existentialist
Background
[The authentic human] will understand that it is not a matter of being right in the eyes of a God, but of being right in his own eyes. Renouncing the thought of seeking the guarantee for his existence outside of himself, he will always refuse to believe in unconditioned values which would set themselves up athwart his freedom like things. Value is this lacking-being of which freedom makes itself a lack; and it is because the latter makes itself a lack that value appears. It is desire which creates the desirable, and the project which sets up the end. It is human exidtence which makes values spring up in the world on the basis of which it will be able to judge the enterprise in which it will be engaged.
– Beauvoir, Ethics of Ambiguity Part I
Existentialist freedom is not the liberal conception of agential choice (as opposed to what we can call free choice), but a phenomenological description of existence ‘from the inside.’ For Beauvoir, the movements of the “will” are free because they are not based on external justification. We typically think of actions as motivated by desires, or values: we do X because that will give us access to Y, and we want and value Y! And our actions are justified if Y really is valuable––if, that is, there is a value in Y that really exists. Beauvoir agrees with this: but she insists that Y’s value is not “external” or “absolute”: that is, it does not pre-exist my choice to value Y. So Beauvoir’s notion of free action does not simply apply to the choices we make based on values we experience in the world; the values we experience are themselves the product of a free choice. Yet this does not mean they don’t exist; values still motivate our action. Without a sense of value, life is meaningless and unmotivated.
Today's Exercise
Isolate three moments in which it becomes clear to you that you and another person (or group of people) value something differently, or see different values in something. Consider the effects this has on your existence: are you able to communicate across the gap? Is your own sense of value challenged? Do you have the instinct to defend or justify your sense of value by attacking or critiquing theirs? Does it work? Spend ten minutes trying to describe each moment.
Once you’ve completed the assigned exercise for today, click here to access the prompt for tonight’s reflection and to submit your 1-2 paragraph journal entry.