Basic values ​​of human life. The main values ​​in human life

Every person has values ​​in life. They are formed in childhood, and in adulthood they influence the actions of people, their decisions, personal choices. Values ​​are a reflection of the essence, a driving force that affects the worldview and the formation of personality. What exactly are the values ​​of life and how to choose them for yourself?

Where do life values ​​come from?

Although human values ​​are a stable structure, they change under the influence of external circumstances and internal experiences. Of fundamental importance are those values ​​that are laid down in childhood. However, they do not appear instantly, they are formed over the course of life. The older a person becomes, the more stable values ​​distinguish him. For some, money, fame, power, and luxury items are essential in life. Others consider spiritual self-improvement, creative development, health, family and children important.

The formation of life values ​​is influenced by:

upbringing and family;
friends;
classmates;
team at work;
experienced traumas and losses;
economic situation in the country.

Basic values ​​of human life

Although each person is individual, there are values ​​that unite all people:

It has nothing to do with selfishness. Such love helps to achieve happiness in life and self-improvement.
Near. The manifestation of this value lies in the respect of each person, his opinion and position in life.
Family. - the highest value for most people.
Husband or spouse. Emotional, spiritual and physical intimacy with a loved one comes first for some.
Love for children.
Motherland. The place where a person was born affects the mentality and attitude to life.
Work. There are people who seek to dissolve in activities, they are ready to take on any assignment at work to achieve the common good.
Friends. and self-expression in it are of no small importance for any person.
Rest. This sphere of life allows a person to concentrate on his feelings, relax and unwind from the endless bustle.
public mission- activity. Altruists primarily seek to do something for the good of society. Satisfying your needs and desires is already in second place.

It cannot be said that each person singles out for himself one universal human value and lives by it. The listed areas are harmoniously intertwined, we just mark a few for ourselves and put them in first place in life.

Life values ​​are a complex structure that is reflected in the formulation and method of achievement. As a result, a person foresees unpleasant situations and possible failures.

List of possible human life values

In addition to basic life values, each person can have individual, sometimes extraordinary values. Below is only a partial list of possible human values, because it can be continued indefinitely.

Optimism. “The pessimist sees difficulties at every opportunity; An optimist sees opportunities in every difficulty. Such a character trait can undoubtedly be considered a value and rejoice at the presence of optimism in your life: with it, life becomes brighter and fuller.
Patience. "Patience and a little effort". The presence of patience, especially among the modern generation, is definitely worth considering as its value. Only with patience can you. This is about your personal benefits. But your friends and partners will surely appreciate this quality.
Honesty. "Honesty is the most precious thing." It is important to be honest not only with others, but also with yourself. If for you this value is on a par with the basic ones, you are probably a happy person: paradoxically, but honest people have an easier life than those who like to lie.
Discipline. "Business before pleasure". Most people are extremely skeptical about this value, because discipline is, in their opinion, equal to restrictions, lack of freedom. And only over the years, many people come to the conclusion that if you are a disciplined person, this does not mean that you somehow limit yourself, you rather find the path to freedom and happiness with the help of this character trait.

Life Value Examples

Asking the question: “What is valuable to me?”, Many find themselves in a dead end. However, it is very important to give yourself an unambiguous answer so that when a new situation arises for yourself, be true to your values.

Life values ​​are not related to the opinions of others and the recognition of you as a person, thanks to the heights you have achieved.

The following sequence of actions helps in determining your values:

Stay on your own. To understand what is important to you in life and what is of secondary importance, it is recommended to clear the space of extraneous influence. Engage in the study of your personality in complete solitude, without the influence of external factors.
Recall important events in your life. It does not have to be only positive situations, reflect on the negative ones as well. Write down the main experiences on a piece of paper, think about what impressed you and what upset you, and without which you cannot imagine your life.
Explore Human Values because personal needs and views follow from them. Keep track of the relationship between the resulting list and everyday life. Some of the items listed are only a desire, not an established value in life.
Watch yourself. Set aside at least one day in which you would explore yourself, behavior, choices and motives for actions. The decisions we make on a daily basis are an indicator of a person's personal choice and values.
If the list of values ​​is too long, it will have to be shortened.. There should be 3 maximum 4 values. The rest is just additions and resulting decisions in life.

Conclusion

Some values ​​that are simultaneously important to a person may conflict. After looking at the compiled list, decide what does not fit together. This is what causes creativity, which is in disharmony with itself. It is important to remember about balance and the impact of our values ​​on the lives of others.

Each person is different, so values ​​differ depending on the nature and established guidelines in a person’s life. Although not every person has a tendency to reflect and explore oneself, it is still worth stopping for a moment and thinking about what is valuable to me. Otherwise, you will be a driven person, without your own core. Under new circumstances, you will immediately lose yourself and your personality!

Life values ​​organize human life. The individual may define important concepts himself, but after that they govern his behavior. This is a set of internal rules, something that a person monitors compliance with independently.

Values, criteria and basis for their growth

It cannot be thought that life values ​​always play the most important role in life. Few people actually follow them. Values ​​are discussed in conversations, but living every second to realize your values ​​is not easy, not everyone can do this.

From a physiological point of view, a person exists to satisfy his needs, is guided by his habits and shows emotions when faced with phenomena that do not satisfy him. The values ​​of many people exist only in words, their implementation is not carried out. For them, life is determined by simple physiological mechanisms. It is necessary to become a person, and for this you will have to develop your own values. Thus, important life values ​​require the achievement of a certain personality base.

Criteria for true intrinsic values:

• They are dear to man, he is ready to stand up for them.
• There must be awareness in their choice, because the person must observe them without reminders.
• The positivity of values ​​causes pride in a person.

The important point is understanding. It is impossible to change life on your deathbed, so be aware of the interest and necessity of your life rules while there is time. If you know for sure what you want and value most, fill every day of your life with it.

Formation of values

If on New Year's Eve you remember everything that happened in the past and dream about what you should do in the new year, then this is the right time to determine life values. Write down everything that is important to you, and then it remains only to monitor compliance with this. A sign of a truly developed personality is if a person is guided in his actions and deeds by his values. The latter determine the goals, plans and the future of a person grow out of them. More deliberate actions - more active personal growth.

Everyone has their own unique set of internal rules. Usually the formation of life values ​​occurs before the onset of twelve years. We are influenced by parents, school and teachers, surrounding culture, etc. Values ​​can be formed after their awareness and full acceptance. A full-fledged personality has ordered life values. She understands what is most important and comes first, and what is placed below or serves other purposes. Coincidence in the list of values ​​contributes to the improvement of relations between people, and significant deviations give rise to conflict. Life values ​​arise in childhood, thanks to the atmosphere that surrounds us. The natural formation of new values ​​can occur by involving the individual in other conditions of life, where a new block of values ​​is critically needed for him.

Categories of values

What else is known about basic life values? Can they be counted? The whole list of life values ​​is extensive, but everything is subject to classification. The synton approach groups the basic life values ​​of a normal person into three circles:

• Related to work, business, business.
• Related to relationships and personal life.
• Responsible for their own development.

These parts can be considered in more detail.

Pleasure

Entertainment and relaxation, love, excitement. This is joy and separation, enjoyment and life to the fullest. Your possible trip to the country of dreams, where you will find the sea and sand, for example, or mountains and snow. Playing roulette when everything is at stake, poker or a bet. Romantic cozy meetings in coffee houses, taking place in the twilight with a loved one nearby.

Relationships

Children, family, common understanding. Long, stable relationship of a loving couple. The question of fathers and children, eternal friendship and loved ones. Included in this category is the value of relationships with other people in general. In addition, love is present here, but it has a different character, not passionate, but caring, affectionate and respectful. It is the joy of meeting with children and spouse after a long day at work. This is the patient sons' help to elderly parents when they are unable to cope even with ordinary affairs.

Stability

Comfort, money, home. This group concerns a stable life and order. It concerns two concepts at once. "Comfort, money, home" are essential for the family, and also support a good rest. Secondly, the financial question affects the category "Work, business, business." To furnish a new apartment, the newlyweds go to Ikea. They are forced to spend a lot of time there, because everything they want is too expensive, and their budget is limited.

purpose

Own projects and affairs. What do you spend your day on? What do you do at work? What's on your mind before you fall asleep? In this category there is everything that relates to your ideas, plans and work, your development. The teenager is fond of video and photography. He carefully sought out the best shots. Ten years later, the man has achieved incredible success and shoots videos. His next step is directing.

Status

Power, career, status. The thirst for gaining a higher position in society, new influences and open doors. The businessman acquires more and more expensive cars, emphasizing their prestige. The model goes shopping only in branded stores. They demonstrate their position in society, because so much effort has been spent to achieve it.

Education

Professional development at work, self-education. The fulfillment of their professional tasks is complicated without the proper level of education and the necessary experience. For this reason, the qualification covers the category "Work, business, business". Improving education and improving skills leads to the development of a person as a person. The stylist carefully considers the appearance of celebrities on the red carpet, because it is important for him to get acquainted with the latest fashion trends.

Self-development

Development of psychological and social skills, personal growth. Category of development of individual characteristics. Personal growth leads to conscious conclusions, increased attention to loved ones and others. Social skills mean the ability to behave in society, to find a common language with different people. Psychological skills - dealing with your fears, controlling emotions, clarity of thought. People immediately appear next to a person when he monitors the manifestations of his feelings, is attentive to others.

Physiology

Health, beauty, development in harmony. Slenderness, care for appearance, good physical shape, ability to dance and grace - all these are physiological life values ​​that are located on the border of two categories. The development of the body and attention to one's health leads to the development of the personality, therefore it is in contact with the category of self-development. These values ​​simultaneously affect relationships with the opposite sex, so the category "Relationships and personal life" develops in parallel.

Spirituality

Realization of goals, knowledge of the surrounding world and life principles, growth of the spiritual sphere. It is difficult for you to leave a mark for future generations if you live only for yourself and your needs. You must watch your motives, the development of spiritual aspirations. Life goals and values ​​are not formed through the purchase of fiction about spiritual practices, esotericism and the supernatural.

So, let's sum up. Every day we are faced with the need to solve certain problems, we struggle with circumstances that adversely affect us. It is important in such situations to make a decision based on your own values. Self-esteem arises only if internal rules are observed. Human life values ​​give him peace and stability.

Value is the significance, importance, usefulness, and usefulness of something. Outwardly, it acts as one of the properties of objects or phenomena. But their usefulness and significance are not inherent in them due to their internal structure, that is, they are not given by nature, they are nothing more than subjective assessments of specific properties involved in the public domain, they are interested in and need them. The Constitution of the Russian Federation says that the highest value is the person himself, his freedom and rights.

The use of the concept of value in various sciences

Depending on what kind of science is studying this phenomenon in society, there are several approaches to its use. So, for example, philosophy considers the concept of value as follows: it is the socio-cultural, personal significance of specific objects. In psychology, value is understood as all those objects of the society surrounding the individual that are of value to him. This term in this case is closely related to motivation. But in sociology, values ​​are understood as those concepts that are called sets of goals, states, phenomena worthy of people striving for them. As you can see, in this case, there is a connection with motivation. In addition, from the point of view of these social sciences, there are the following types and spiritual ones. The latter are also called eternal values. They are not tangible, but sometimes they are much more important for society than all material objects put together. Of course, they have nothing to do with economics. In this science, the concept of value is considered as the cost of objects. At the same time, two types of it are distinguished: consumer and the former represent one or another value for consumers, depending on the degree of usefulness of the product or its ability to satisfy human needs, and the latter are valuable because they are suitable for exchange, and the degree of their significance is determined by the ratio that is obtained with an equivalent exchange. That is, the more a person is aware of his dependence on a given object, the higher its value. People living in cities are completely dependent on money, because they need it to purchase the most necessary goods, namely food. For rural residents, monetary dependence is not as great as in the first case, since they can get the products necessary for life regardless of the availability of money, for example, from their own garden.

Various definitions of values

The simplest definition of this concept is the statement that values ​​are all those objects and phenomena that can satisfy human needs. They can be material, that is, tangible, or they can be abstract, like love, happiness, etc. By the way, the totality of values ​​that are inherent in a particular person or group are called Without it, any culture would be meaningless. And here is another definition of value: it is the objective significance of the variety of components (properties and features of an object or phenomenon) of reality, which are determined by the interests and needs of people. The main thing is that they are necessary for a person. However, value and significance are not always equivalent. After all, the first is not only positive, but also negative, but the value is always positive. What satisfies cannot be negative, although here everything is relative...

Representatives of the Austrian school believe that core values ​​are a specific amount of goods or goods that are necessary to satisfy. The more a person realizes his dependence on the presence of a given object, the higher its value. In a word, the relationship between quantity and need is important here. According to this theory, goods that exist in unlimited quantities, such as water, air, etc., are of little importance because they are non-economic. But the goods, the quantity of which does not satisfy the needs, that is, there are less of them than necessary, are of real value. This view has both many supporters and opponents who fundamentally disagree with this opinion.

Changeability of values

This philosophical category has a social nature, since it is formed in the process of practice. As a result, values ​​tend to change over time. What was significant for this society may not be so for future generations. And we see this from our own experience. If we look back into the past, we can see that the values ​​of the generations of our parents and ours differ in many ways from each other.

Main types of values

As noted above, the main types of values ​​are material (contributing to life) and spiritual. The latter give a person moral satisfaction. The main types of material values ​​are the simplest goods (housing, food, household items, clothing, etc.) and goods of a higher order (means of production). However, both of them contribute to the life of society, as well as improving the quality of life of its members. And people need spiritual values ​​for the formation and further development of their worldviews, as well as worldview. They contribute to the spiritual enrichment of the individual.

The role of values ​​in society

This category, in addition to being of some importance to society, also plays a certain role. For example, the development of different values ​​by a person contributes to the acquisition of social experience, as a result of which he joins the culture, and this, in turn, affects the formation of his personality. Another important role of values ​​in society is that a person strives to create new goods, while maintaining the old, already existing ones. In addition, the value of thoughts, actions, various things is expressed in how important they are for the process of social development, that is, the progress of society. And at the personal level - the development and self-improvement of a person.

Classification

There are several classifications. For example, according to it, material and spiritual values ​​are distinguished. But according to their significance, the latter are false and true. Classification is also carried out by areas of activity, depending on their carrier, and by the time of action. According to the first, economic, religious and aesthetic values ​​are distinguished, the second - universal, group and personality values, and the third - eternal, long-term, short-term and momentary. In principle, there are other classifications, but they are too narrow.

Material and spiritual values

Regarding the first, we have already managed to tell above, everything is clear with them. These are all the material goods that surround us that make our life possible. As for the spiritual, they are components of the inner world of people. And the initial categories here are good and evil. The first contribute to happiness, and the second - everything that leads to destruction and is the cause of discontent and unhappiness. Spiritual - these are the true values. However, to be so, they must coincide with significance.

Religious and aesthetic values

Religion is based on unconditional faith in God, and it does not require any proof. Values ​​in this area are guidelines in the life of believers, which are determined by the norms and motives of their actions and behavior in general. Aesthetic values ​​are all that gives a person pleasure. They are directly related to the concept of "beauty". They are associated with creativity, with art. The beautiful is the main category of aesthetic value. Creative people dedicate their lives to creating beauty, not only for themselves, but also for others, wanting to bring true joy, delight, and admiration to those around them.

Personal values

Each person has their own personal orientations. And they can differ from person to person. What is important in the eyes of one may not be valuable to another. For example, classical music, which brings lovers of this genre into a state of ecstasy, may seem boring and uninteresting to someone. Personal values ​​are greatly influenced by factors such as upbringing, education, social circle, environment, etc. Of course, the family has the strongest influence on a person. This is the environment in which a person begins his primary development. He gets his first idea of ​​values ​​in his family (group values), but with age he may accept some of them and reject others.

Personal values ​​include the following types of values:

• those that are components of the meaning of human life;
• the most general semantic formations, which are based on reflexes;
• beliefs that have to do with desired behavior or completing something;
• objects and phenomena to which the individual has a weakness or is simply not indifferent;
• what is important for each person of a person, and what he considers his property.

These are the types of personal values.

A new approach to defining values

Values ​​are opinions (beliefs). Some scientists think so. According to them, these are biased and cold ideas. But when they begin to activate, they mix with feelings, while getting a certain color. Others believe that the main values ​​are the goals that people strive for - equality, freedom, well-being. It is also a way of behavior that contributes to the achievement of these goals: mercy, empathy, honesty, etc. According to the same theory, true values ​​should act as some kind of standards that guide the assessment or choice of people, actions and events.

Have you ever wondered what is most important to you in life? Each of us, answering it, will name personal desires and needs. For some, the main goal is a career, for others - power and position in society, for others, the family is at the head of everything. And this is quite understandable, because everyone has their own priorities in life.

However, we are rather interested in what this choice is connected with and what guides the individual in achieving his goals. Let's figure out together what a person's life values ​​are and how they are formed.

Briefly about the main thing: concepts and types

Speaking about what the term “life values” means, it is worth considering the individual scale for each person, through which he evaluates his life and chooses the further direction of his path. At various stages of the development and formation of society, this scale of measures and assessments has undergone changes. But at all times certain parameters were present in it, which remain relevant to this day and are, so to speak, constant values.

The system of human values ​​consists of absolute individual factors that are of great importance in the worldview of a person and are the main guidelines in his activity. And those directions that will coincide with the life principles of a person will become a priority for him. The rest will be secondary.

Being interested in what life values ​​are and what it is in general, one should not forget that this concept is complex. As a rule, the formed value system of a mature person consists of three main “ingredients”. And this:

• Universal human values, due to the concepts that exist in the human mind about what can be important and what is not worthy of attention (secondary).
• Cultural, formed on the basis of generally accepted norms about what is “good” and what is “bad”, as well as the characteristics of cultural development and the environment of education.
• Individual (or personal) values ​​are individual features of the worldview, which are purely subjective for each individual person.

It can be seen that in fact there are a huge variety of life values. At the same time, all of them can be divided into different types of values ​​and groups, which will be based on a classification according to a specific attribute.

So, for example, all known values ​​are divided into two large groups, depending on what their nature is: material and spiritual values. People who consider the first group to be the main one are those for whom various material goods are a priority, what they can own (cars, apartments, jewelry, clothes, etc.). The second group is put at the forefront by people for whom spiritual concepts and human qualities, such as mercy, wisdom, freedom, knowledge, love, and others are more significant.

Classifications of psychologists

The classification of values ​​once proposed by Münsterberg allows in psychology to divide people's priorities into two types:

• Vital, which include human feelings: love, happiness, joy, etc.
• Cultural values ​​and norms that combine not only material, but also spiritual benefits that are of great importance in culture.

At the same time, there is another classification of priority life concepts, in which the spheres of realization of certain structures, as well as the degree of their spirituality, were taken as a basis. Thus, the following human values ​​can be distinguished:

• Vital - is human life and its quality, health, safety, environmental and physical.
• Economic - favorable conditions for business development, the optimal environment for the production and promotion of products, the same rights for manufacturers.
• Social values ​​- position in society, family and children, well-being, gender equality, individual independence, diligence, patience, career.
• Political - peace, patriotism, the possibility of expressing citizenship, independence.
• Moral values ​​- love, justice, kindness, mutual respect, help, good breeding, honor, devotion, care.
• Religious - faith in God and salvation, the Bible, grace.
• Aesthetic values ​​- inner balance, beauty, a sense of beauty, style.
• Moral values ​​- the meaning of life, conscience, honesty, responsibility, determination, duty.

Despite the fact that human values ​​are divided into only two main groups, all people are divided into three types. The main criterion for such a classification of people is what this or that person prefers. That is, there are materialistic people who are only interested in material and material goods (things, cars, houses, apartments and other goods).

Spirituals, the next type of people, are those who give preference to concepts and qualities of an immaterial nature. And there is another type - spiritual materialists. These include individuals, the main vectors of development of which are directed simultaneously to both material and spiritual values.

The concept of "value" for all people on the planet has a different content, but at the same time they are associated with certain phenomena from the same spheres of life. The value system will embody only an individual sequence of priorities.

Conditional scale of life priorities

AT highlight the basic, eternal values, thanks to which a common system of values ​​has been formed for all people on the planet. This is:

1. Health. Perhaps, this item for many will be the main factor, estimated very highly. In turn, health can be attributed both to the category of spiritual and physical well-being, and to the category of social values. This is because for many of us, various crises, failures and adverse situations are a significant indicator for assessing the state of health.

2. Family. This is one of the main values ​​in human life. Despite the fact that there are those who refuse to start a family or have a child, and despite the propaganda of same-sex marriages, caring for loved ones remains the main activity of many people on the planet.

What are family values? This is a concept that cannot exist separately from the family, because it means various rules, ideals, relics and memories that accumulate over the years and are passed on from generation to generation. And here you can give a lot of examples from life.

For example, old photos and stories of ancestors, aesthetic norms, rules of conduct, ideas about family relationships, traditions and much more. That is, family (or traditional family) values ​​are a set of ideas of each family member about a community united by common interests, in which everyone is able to influence the choice of life goals and guidelines, as well as ways of self-realization and organization of the future.

3. Success in various spheres of life and in life in general. With the development of a cultural society, prestigious education, a high position and a decent salary, universal recognition and position in society are becoming more and more priority. In this regard, success and promising self-realization are those values ​​in life that are held in high esteem by the majority of the population.

4. Time. Many consider time to be a priceless resource that cannot be bought, sold, or exchanged. And those meaningful spiritual structures that accumulate over time often shape family values, experiences, and memories.

5. Finance (money). This is a very important point, which is highly appreciated by every second person, which is not at all surprising, given the economic situation in the world. For many, money is a means of a successful, happy existence, full development.

6. Recreation and the opportunity to travel. It is not surprising that many of us consider this item a priority for ourselves, because the opportunity to relax and travel not only brings invaluable experience, new knowledge and emotional relaxation, but also contributes to the casket of family values.

All of the above points represent core values. In addition to them, there are others that are no less common in modern society: creativity, inner circle (friends and relatives), spiritual development, freedom, authority, communication, etc.

Speaking about life values, you need to understand that they are an “internal beacon” to which each subsequent step and deed should lead us. And if reality does not correspond to the internal model of your world, this can be expressed in recurring problems, stressful situations and poor health. When you set a specific goal for yourself and set your priorities right, you can gain confidence in yourself and become a successful, and most importantly, a happy person. Author: Elena Suvorova

The value of human life

Many people ask such questions: What is the most valuable thing in life? How often do we think about the meaning of life? Do we appreciate life itself? Now let's think: what is the value of human life? What opportunities do we have?

First of all, it is the consciousness, the human mind. Unlike animals, we are able, when faced with a problem, not just suffering, to experience it, we can explore suffering, understand what its causes are. We can find ways to eliminate this suffering and eliminate its causes. This is the value of human life.

The value of human life - human life - is an irreplaceable resource and has a really great potential value. But the value of the resource in itself does not mean anything. As a metaphor, let's take, for example, a diamond - a valuable, expensive stone, but in itself it is not very attractive: it is just a piece of rock, beautiful, but so far meaningless. It is later, when the diamond is cut by the hands of the master, it will shine, playing and shimmering with its sparkling facets, reflecting the sun's rays of a young day and will rive the eyes with its beauty and give joy. It is the same with a person’s life: if he, an attentive master, builds his life soundly and beautifully, taking care that the same strong lives are built next to him, his life becomes a masterpiece, his main and great creation. If a person randomly stacks bricks anyhow, uses everything that comes to hand, does not care about a strong foundation and reliable walls, builds on the one hand, destroys on the other, and even prevents others from building - his life turns out to be nothing more than than a pile of bricks piled together. If life is spent in vain, nowhere, in drinking and empty chatter about beautiful things, the value of such a life as a result turns out to be low, although the resource itself was very expensive. If life is lived beautifully, strongly, taking care of at least oneself and one's loved ones, or many people at one's own expense, the value of such a life will be high. A person makes the value of his life himself: it depends on his choice in which direction he wants to live and will live. And only his choice will be where to give away an irreplaceable, and therefore incredibly valuable resource: bury it under a pile of bricks or invest it in a magnificent Temple. Human life is a great value. It is not comparable to any other value (other type). In this sense, it is similar to a transfinite number. Which, by definition, is greater than any integer or real number. Infinitely more.

So, the value of human life is not comparable with the value of anything else. It is, by definition, more valuable than anything else. But it can be compared with the value of another human life.

The absolute value of a person makes his life as a value special, not like all others. The question of how to understand the absolute value of a person was discussed above. Now the turn has come to determine what is included in the content of the values ​​of human life. The sign by which we can determine whether this or that value is among the vital ones will be such a manifestation of life, which will turn out to be the deepest, primordial, complete and immediate, indivisible manifestation of it.

Let me explain with an example. For example, a man was found under the rubble of a collapsed house. He is saved regardless of whether he is a believer or an atheist, educated or not, whether he is a hero or an ordinary citizen. They save him, first of all, as a living being, they save his life.

Such values, as noted above, are called existential, which form the basis of all other manifestations of life and values, which is associated with the fundamental meanings of human existence.

These values ​​include: life, death (not in itself, but because the finiteness of life is its most important characteristic), love, family, the birth and upbringing of children, freedom, solitude, participation, work, rest, creativity.

Life or existence is the core, basic value of a person. It is the general condition of all his states and actions. But it is important to emphasize that it is not the value of life that is prioritized, but the value of a person, since it is the personality that exists, the personality lives, the personality exists, while life, no matter how valuable and significant in itself it may seem to us, is nothing more than the most immediate place, the center of the emergence of personality, the way of its being in the world.

If personality is essence and life is existence, then our existence precedes our essence. To say that an entity exists is to say that a person lives. But it is the essence, the personal principle that is the semantic and value center of a person.

The value of life as such is twofold. On the one hand, life is given to us as the highest gift, a universal opportunity, and therefore we must highly value life, feel reverence and respect for it. On the other hand, life is given to those who are not just life, but a person - a creature living its own life, a free, thinking, creative being, knowing life, its beginning and end, its limitless possibilities and its biological boundaries, a being aware of finiteness life. And therefore, the one to whom it is presented, given (literally for nothing!) In order to be lived by him - more priority, more important than life, is its subject. Good or bad is another question. There are lives of genius, and there are lives of mediocrity.

Perhaps there is even a law of life: we are either higher than life, if we live it worthily, or lower, that is, we are unworthy of this gift, if we live somehow, going with the flow. But in any case, a person and his life are not the same thing.

The birth of a personality is an act of life going beyond its biological limits. This means that reason and freedom are born in her womb, giving rise to a whole firework of unique cultural phenomena that cannot be reduced to life as a biological process.

Life is either there or it isn't. But its quality may vary. If we live, support our life, love and care for it in the name of good and not at the expense of the lives and values ​​of other people, then we are human, and our life is good and rich. If inhuman principles take over in us, then our life begins to degrade, weaken, become poorer and weaker. Its value decreases to the extent that it burns through, kills the inhuman in us.

The more humane, richer our life, the higher its value. Life is valuable to the extent that I am the human master of my life.

“Just to live”, to live a passive, vegetative life, surrendering to the flow of everyday life and the momentary, means to thoughtlessly waste your start-up capital, that initial reserve of life that we all already have by the time the first acts of consciousness and self-consciousness appear, by the time of awakening in us personality and humanity.

There is a saying: one person lives to eat, the other eats to live. A humane person can say that he eats and lives in order to become and be a human person, in order to create himself and the values ​​of personal, social and universal life, in order to improve and elevate the dignity of man.

Life is a value because it is the initial base, a way, a process in the course of which we can only manifest, call to active being, realize our humanity, all our positive qualities and virtues, all our values.

From this alone, human life becomes infinitely valuable, becomes a universal value.

The boundless value of life is already manifested in the fact that it invites everyone and everything to its feast, to the feast of life, for everyone and every human being it finds a place at its holiday. As our priceless gift and a real chance, without any preconditions, she tells each of us - live!

Perhaps what has just been said sounded too declarative. There are illnesses that make existence itself a test, early deaths, and so on.

And yet, in the infinite value of life, as long as we can live, all its black spots seem to sink. Every mentally healthy person cherishes life, regardless of whether it looks successful by accepted standards or not - this is another confirmation of our thought.

However, life itself, regardless of its assessment, which is always secondary, requires a humane attitude towards itself. To be realized as a value, it must be, must be preserved as such, it must be maintained, strengthened and enriched. But some internal reserves of life, the instincts of its self-preservation are not enough. And that's why.

Life is the universal, all-embracing basis of human existence. This means that it is open to both the human and the inhuman in us. That is why it can be both joy, and grief, and wings, and a yoke around the neck, and luxury, good luck, and poverty, failure and a curse.

Millions and tens of millions of drug addicts and alcoholics, homeless and homeless children, orphans, hundreds of millions of the poor, doomed in different countries to vegetate, starve and suffer through the fault of totalitarian and ignorant ruling forces and because of the archaic traditions of lack of freedom and humility - they all ended up not in able or were deprived of the opportunity to realize their life potential.

But in any case, life itself cannot but be a value. It becomes a burden or even unbearable not because of its own essence, but only insofar as it is permeated, clothed with the negative of the inhumane in a person or that existing outside of a human being that oppresses him, undermines, deprives him of strength.

If by human life we ​​understand not only its biological side, but also its psychic and intellectual side (and only such integrity can be called human life), then it is easy to imagine how wide the range of the intrusion of the anti-human into us, into our own life.

When for some reason a reliable barrier is not established on the path of this invasion, when the inhumane is not opposed by the humane, then the process of life begins to acquire a negative meaning, becomes inhuman and destructive for the person himself, and for society, and for the environment.

The worst thing that can happen to a person is the victory of the inhuman in him. His final victory means spiritual degradation and death, stimulating, one way or another, physical degradation and death. No villain is truly happy, and the life expectancy of hardened criminals is far below the average life expectancy.

Life has not only internal enemies in the person of the person himself, but also external enemies, existing outside the personality and society. Especially obvious are the dangers that threaten life as a biological process: diseases, natural disasters, unhealthy habitats. Although in many ways these enemies can be socially determined, and either stimulated by social factors, or weakened, and some of them defeated by social measures, the very nature of these threats is associated with physical, general biological or environmental laws. In this context, the question arises about the component of our life that is connected with our flesh and its value.

The value of our body is not only biological, physical and aesthetic. It is actually vital, existential, because it is fundamentally connected with our existence as life.

Health is a general condition for a favorable and fruitful life, and the most important value, therefore. There are several simple humanistic rules for a person's attitude to his physical and mental health. It's actually very simple, all you need is:

• - Healthy food;
• - daily exercise;
• - avoid unnecessary stress;
• - to be able to relax and rest;
• - be reasonable and moderate in receiving pleasures.

Health is not just physical or mental. In principle, it is indivisible and refers to a person as a unity of the physical, biological, mental, moral, intellectual and worldview.

When we talk about the human body as a value, we must answer the question about the disabled. Unfortunately, in the modern language there is no concept that is adequate to modern culture, referring to chronically ill people or a person who has not been born or has lost, say, sight or a hand during his lifetime. All existing concepts: “disabled person”, “person with limited physical abilities” and the like are insulting to some extent, hurt the dignity of such people.

Are such people fundamentally flawed and obviously deprived of the possibility of happiness, a rich, fruitful, worthy and perfect life? Humanism answers this question in the negative. No sacred or scientific book says that a person can be complete only if everything is in order with his flesh: four limbs, ten fingers, two eyes, ears and two nostrils, if he has nine natural openings in the body , the whole set of properly functioning internal organs and a standard physique.

History and modernity give us a lot of examples of a person's victory over his ailments, overcoming physical shortcomings. A person is arranged so wisely and highly adaptive, possesses such remarkable qualities as courage, purposefulness, perseverance, that he is able to turn even severe ailments or, say, blindness into a step for improvement, an additional motive for maintaining a highly moral, humane, sometimes heroic lifestyle. An illness can induce a person not only to overcome it, but also to ascend, to strengthen the will to live.

In today's civilized societies, much is being done to remove the physical, psychological and legal barriers that discriminate against or make life difficult for people with disabilities. The range of such actions is very wide: from the arrangement of special slopes in houses and on the streets to the organization of sports competitions for the disabled and the maximum reduction in the list of professions prohibited for the disabled.

Society should strive to reasonably erase the distinctions between the disabled and other people, to ensure that there is no need for privileges, which, unfortunately, are too reminiscent of alms and are offensive to a person.

I would like to separately express my opinion on this topic. In my opinion, this problem, namely, the problem is relevant in our time. Many people do not think about their lives, treat it carelessly, scatter their health and strength. A person thinks that he is omnipotent, and he can do everything, and of course, in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we do not have time to ask these questions. But for every person, I am sure, there comes a moment when questions of the value of human life require an indispensable answer. Unfortunately, it happens that this moment comes too late to be able to change something. Sometimes a person only in the face of death realizes that he lived wrong, that he lost something that you can’t return. So how can you understand and understand, first of all, for yourself, what is valuable to you and what matters to you. Of course, this is a difficult question, but it seems to me that each person should determine this for himself. For some, value is countless wealth and benefits, a huge amount of money, someone dreams of being popular and talented, someone dreams of everyone around being happy, and for someone, the value lies in the health of loved ones and relatives. Each person has his own range of values, and he is absolutely in the right to decide for himself what to value.

But unfortunately, a person often chooses the wrong values ​​that could successfully and beneficially affect a person’s life and health. Often people get confused in themselves, cross the line of inhumanity and inhumanity, and this, in turn, entails serious consequences, such as: various social conflicts, crimes, immoral behavior, harm to health to themselves and others. This list could go on and on.

A person drives himself into a dead end, leaving no choice to change something, Moreover, the realization that your life was lived in empty comes very late and the person is not able to change anything. Of course, there are a huge number of reasons why a person chooses his values, but I would like to note that only the Man himself is the master of his life. And life is a flower. If you stop looking after him, watering, fertilizing, taking care of him, then he will wither.

So it is with a person. If you thoughtlessly and carelessly treat yourself, waste time, health and strength, then in the end, life, like a ruthless flower, will fade away.

Therefore, value yourself and those around you, appreciate every moment, every second, be able to find a piece of good in the bad, because life is given to us only once! philosophical life anti-humanistic

Phrases of famous people about the value of life:

• - I realized that life is worth nothing, but I also realized that nothing is worth living (André Malraux);
• - If you value your life, remember that others value theirs no less (Euripides);
• - The life of an individual person has meaning only to the extent that it helps to make the lives of other people more beautiful and nobler. Life is sacred, it is, so to speak, the supreme value to which all other values ​​\u200b\u200bare subordinate (Einstein Albert);
• - Truly, he who does not value life does not deserve it (Leonardo da Vinci).