The most important role not only in the life of each individual person, but also in the whole society as a whole is played by values ​​and value orientations, which primarily perform an integrative function. It is on the basis of values ​​(while focusing on their approval in society) that each person makes his own choice in life. Values, occupying a central position in the structure of personality, have a significant impact on the direction of a person and the content of his social activity, behavior and actions, his social position and his general attitude towards the world, towards himself and other people. Therefore, the loss of the meaning of life by a person is always the result of the destruction and rethinking of the old system of values, and in order to regain this meaning again, he needs to create a new system based on universal human experience and using the forms of behavior and activities accepted in society.

Values ​​are a kind of internal integrator of a person, concentrating around themselves all his needs, interests, ideals, attitudes and beliefs. Thus, the system of values ​​in a person's life takes the form of the inner core of his entire personality, and the same system in society is the core of its culture. Value systems, functioning both at the level of the individual and at the level of society, create a kind of unity. This is due to the fact that the personal value system is always formed based on the values ​​that are dominant in a particular society, and they, in turn, influence the choice of the individual goal of each individual and determine the ways to achieve it.

Values ​​in a person's life are the basis for choosing the goals, methods and conditions of activity, and also help him answer the question, why does he perform this or that activity? In addition, values ​​are the system-forming core of the idea (or program), human activity and his inner spiritual life, because spiritual principles, intentions and humanity no longer relate to activity, but to values ​​and value orientations.

The role of values ​​in human life: theoretical approaches to the problem

Modern human values- the most urgent problem of both theoretical and applied psychology, since they influence the formation and are the integrative basis of the activity of not only a single individual, but also a social group (large or small), a team, an ethnic group, a nation and all of humanity. It is difficult to overestimate the role of values ​​in a person's life, because they illuminate his life, filling it with harmony and simplicity, which determines a person's desire for free will, for the will of creative possibilities.

The problem of human values ​​in life is studied by the science of axiology ( in lane from Greek axia / axio - value, logos / logos - a reasonable word, teaching, study), more precisely, a separate branch of scientific knowledge of philosophy, sociology, psychology and pedagogy. In psychology, values ​​are usually understood as something significant for the person himself, something that gives an answer to his actual, personal meanings. Values ​​are also seen as a concept that denotes objects, phenomena, their properties and abstract ideas that reflect social ideals and therefore are the standard of due.

It should be noted that the special importance and significance of values ​​in a person's life arises only in comparison with the opposite (this is how people strive for good, because evil exists on earth). Values ​​cover the whole life of both a person and the whole of humanity, while they affect absolutely all areas (cognitive, behavioral and emotional-sensory).

The problem of values ​​was of interest to many famous philosophers, sociologists, psychologists and educators, but the beginning of the study of this issue was laid back in ancient times. So, for example, Socrates was one of the first who tried to understand what goodness, virtue and beauty are, and these concepts were separated from things or actions. He believed that the knowledge achieved through the understanding of these concepts is the basis of a person's moral behavior. Here it is also worth referring to the ideas of Protagoras, who believed that each person is already a value as a measure of what exists and what does not exist.

Analyzing the category of “value”, one cannot pass by Aristotle, because it is to him that the term “thymia” (or valued) originated. He believed that values ​​in human life are both the source of things and phenomena and the cause of their diversity. Aristotle identified the following benefits:

• valued (or divine, to which the philosopher attributed the soul and mind);
• praised (impudent praise);
• opportunities (here the philosopher attributed strength, wealth, beauty, power, etc.).

Philosophers of modern times made a significant contribution to the development of questions about the nature of values. Among the most significant figures of that era, it is worth highlighting I. Kant, who called the will the central category that could help in solving the problems of the human value sphere. And the most detailed explanation of the process of formation of values ​​belongs to G. Hegel, who described the changes in values, their connections and structure in the three stages of the existence of activity (they are described in more detail below in the table).

Features of changing values ​​in the process of activity (according to G. Hegel)

Steps of activity	Features of the formation of values
first	the emergence of a subjective value (its definition occurs even before the start of actions), a decision is made, that is, the value-goal must be concretized and correlated with external changing conditions
second	The value is in the focus of the activity itself, there is an active, but at the same time contradictory interaction between the value and possible ways to achieve it, here the value becomes a way to form new values
third	values ​​are woven directly into activity, where they manifest themselves as an objectified process

The problem of human values ​​in life has been deeply studied by foreign psychologists, among which it is worth noting the works of V. Frankl. He said that the meaning of human life as its basic education finds its manifestation in the system of values. Under the values ​​themselves, he understood the meanings (he called them "universal meanings"), which are characteristic of a greater number of representatives not only of a particular society, but of humanity as a whole throughout the entire path of its development (historical). Viktor Frankl focused on the subjective significance of values, which is accompanied, first of all, by the person taking responsibility for its implementation.

In the second half of the last century, values ​​were often considered by scientists through the prism of the concepts of "value orientations" and "personal values". The greatest attention was paid to the study of the value orientations of the individual, which were understood both as an ideological, political, moral and ethical basis for a person's assessment of the surrounding reality, and as a way of differentiating objects according to their significance for the individual. The main thing that almost all scientists paid attention to was that value orientations are formed only due to the assimilation of social experience by a person, and they find their manifestation in goals, ideals, and other manifestations of personality. In turn, the system of values ​​in human life is the basis of the content side of the orientation of the individual and reflects its internal attitude in the surrounding reality.

Thus, value orientations in psychology were considered as a complex socio-psychological phenomenon that characterized the orientation of the personality and the content side of its activity, which determined the general approach of a person to himself, other people and the world as a whole, and also gave meaning and direction to his personality. behavior and activities.

Forms of existence of values, their signs and features

Throughout its history of development, humanity has developed universal or universal values ​​that have not changed their meaning or diminished their significance for many generations. These are such values ​​as truth, beauty, goodness, freedom, justice and many others. These and many other values ​​in a person's life are associated with the motivational-need sphere and are an important regulatory factor in his life.

Values ​​in psychological understanding can be represented in two meanings:

• in the form of objectively existing ideas, objects, phenomena, actions, properties of products (both material and spiritual);
• as their significance for a person (value system).

Among the forms of existence of values, there are: social, subject and personal (they are presented in more detail in the table).

Forms of existence of values ​​according to O.V. Sukhomlinsky

Of particular importance in the study of values ​​and value orientations were the studies of M. Rokeach. He understood values ​​as positive or negative ideas (and abstract ones), which are in no way connected with any particular object or situation, but are only an expression of human beliefs about types of behavior and prevailing goals. According to the researcher, all values ​​have the following features:

• the total number of values ​​(significant and motivated) is small;
• all values ​​in people are similar (only the steps of their significance are different);
• all values ​​are organized into systems;
• the sources of values ​​are culture, society and social institutions;
• values ​​have an impact on a large number of phenomena that are studied by a variety of sciences.

In addition, M. Rokeach established a direct dependence of a person's value orientations on many factors, such as his income level, gender, age, race, nationality, level of education and upbringing, religious orientation, political beliefs, etc.

Some signs of values ​​were also proposed by S. Schwartz and W. Bilisky, namely:

• values ​​are understood as either a concept or a belief;
• they refer to the desired end states of the individual or to his behavior;
• they have a supra-situational character;
• are guided by the choice, as well as the assessment of human behavior and actions;
• they are ordered by importance.

Classification of values

Today in psychology there is a huge number of very different classifications of values ​​and value orientations. Such diversity appeared due to the fact that values ​​are classified according to various criteria. So they can be combined into certain groups and classes, depending on what types of needs these values ​​satisfy, what role they play in a person's life and in what area they are applied. The table below shows the most generalized classification of values.

Classification of values

Criteria	Values ​​can be
assimilation object	material and moral
subject and object content	socio-political, economic and moral
subject of assimilation	social, class and values ​​of social groups
purpose of assimilation	selfish and altruistic
generalization level	concrete and abstract
mode of manifestation	persistent and situational
the role of human activity	terminal and instrumental
content of human activity	cognitive and object-transforming (creative, aesthetic, scientific, religious, etc.)
belonging	individual (or personal), group, collective, public, national, universal
group-society relationship	positive and negative

From the point of view of the psychological characteristics of human values, the classification proposed by K. Khabibulin is interesting. Their values ​​were divided as follows:

• depending on the subject of activity, values ​​can be individual or act as values ​​of a group, class, society;
• according to the object of activity, the scientist singled out material values ​​in human life (or vital) and sociogenic (or spiritual);
• depending on the type of human activity, values ​​can be cognitive, labor, educational and socio-political;
• the last group consists of values ​​according to the way of performing activities.

There is also a classification based on the allocation of vital (human ideas about good, evil, happiness and sorrow) and universal values. This classification was proposed at the end of the last century by T.V. Butkovskaya. Universal values, according to the scientist, are:

• vital (life, family, health);
• social recognition (values ​​such as social status and ability to work);
• interpersonal recognition (exhibition and honesty);
• democratic (freedom of expression or freedom of speech);
• particular (belonging to a family);
• transcendental (manifestation of faith in God).

It is also worth dwelling separately on the classification of values ​​according to M. Rokeach, the author of the most famous method in the world, the main purpose of which is to determine the hierarchy of a person's value orientations. M. Rokeach divided all human values ​​into two broad categories:

• terminal (or value-goals) - the person's conviction that the ultimate goal is worth all the effort to achieve it;
• instrumental (or value-methods) - a person's conviction that a certain way of behavior and actions is the most successful for achieving the goal.

There are still a huge number of different classifications of values, a summary of which is given in the table below.

Value classifications

Scientist	Values
V.P. Tugarinov	spiritual	education, art and science
	socio-political	justice, will, equality and brotherhood
	material	various types of material goods, technology
V.F. Sergeants	material	tools and methods of implementation
	spiritual	political, moral, ethical, religious, legal and philosophical
A. Maslow	being (B-values)	higher, characteristic of a person who is self-actualizing (values ​​of beauty, goodness, truth, simplicity, uniqueness, justice, etc.)
	scarce (D-values)	lower, aimed at satisfying a need that has been frustrated (values ​​such as sleep, security, dependence, peace of mind, etc.)

Analyzing the presented classification, the question arises, what are the main values ​​in human life? In fact, there are a lot of such values, but the most important are common (or universal) values, which, according to V. Frankl, are based on three main human existentials - spirituality, freedom and responsibility. The psychologist identified the following groups of values ​​("eternal values"):

• creativity that allows people to understand what they can give to a given society;
• experiences, thanks to which a person realizes what he receives from society and society;
• relationships that enable people to realize their place (position) in relation to those factors that somehow limit their lives.

It should also be noted that the most important place is occupied by moral values ​​in human life, because they play a leading role in people's decisions related to morality and moral standards, and this in turn indicates the level of development of their personality and humanistic orientation.

The system of values ​​in human life

The problem of human values ​​in life occupies a leading position in psychological research, because they are the core of the personality and determine its direction. In solving this problem, a significant role belongs to the study of the value system, and here the studies of S. Bubnova, who, based on the works of M. Rokeach, created her own model of the system of value orientations (it is hierarchical and consists of three levels), had a serious impact. The system of values ​​in human life, in her opinion, consists of:

• values-ideals, which are the most general and abstract (this includes spiritual and social values);
• values-properties that are fixed in the process of human life;
• values-modes of activity and behavior.

Any system of values ​​will always combine two categories of values: values-goals (or terminal) and values-methods (or instrumental). Terminal includes the ideals and goals of a person, group and society, and instrumental - ways to achieve goals that are accepted and approved in a given society. Values-goals are more stable than values-methods, therefore they act as a system-forming factor in various social and cultural systems.

To the specific system of values ​​that exists in society, each person shows his own attitude. In psychology, there are five types of human relations in the value system (according to J. Gudechek):

• active, which is expressed in a high degree of internalization of this system;
• comfortable, that is, externally accepted, but at the same time a person does not identify himself with this system of values;
• indifferent, which consists in the manifestation of indifference and complete lack of interest in this system;
• disagreement or rejection, manifested in a critical attitude and condemnation of the value system, with the intention of changing it;
• opposition, which manifests itself both in internal and external contradiction with this system.

It should be noted that the system of values ​​in a person's life is the most important component in the structure of personality, while it occupies a borderline position - on the one hand, it is a system of personal meanings of a person, on the other, its motivational-need sphere. Values ​​and value orientations of a person act as the leading quality of a person, emphasizing its uniqueness and individuality.

Values ​​are the most powerful regulator of human life. They guide a person on the path of his development and determine his behavior and activities. In addition, the focus of a person on certain values ​​and value orientations will certainly have an impact on the process of formation of society as a whole.

Human life values play a key role in his fate, because decision-making, the realization of the right to choose, the realization of life's purpose, and relationships with other people depend on them.

Each person has his own system of life values, his own priorities. Everyone certainly has values. But, for the most part, people are not aware of their values. And this should definitely be done in order to, as they say, make life easier for yourself. After all, when making any decision, from the most insignificant to the most momentous, one should turn to the system of one's values, and then, it is quite likely, it will be possible to avoid painful doubts and worries.

Human life values- the basis of life choices of varying degrees of importance.

For some, material values ​​are important: money, food, clothing, housing. For some, spiritual values ​​are a priority: spiritual search, disclosure and realization of one's life purpose, creative self-development, the fulfillment of one's earthly mission. But there are so-called universal values ​​that are important for all people. Among these are the following:

1. Love for yourself (which has nothing to do with selfishness). Only self-love helps to show love towards other people.

2. Warm relationships with people on which our whole life is built.

3. A close loved one, a soul mate who has a special place in your heart. After all, only a couple living in love and harmony is able to realize themselves and leave a mark in life.

4. Creating a home.

5. Love for children.

6. Love for the Motherland - the place where you were born and spent your childhood. This is one of the most important factors in the formation of personality.

7. Work or other social activity. Of course, the work is very important. But in the modern world there has been a catastrophic bias in her direction. Too many people devote much more time to earning money than to their own health, sports, raising children, creating a home together.

8. Friends and associates. Communication with such people gives joy and self-confidence.

9. Rest. It is rest that allows us to find peace and balance, to concentrate on ourselves.

4 170 0 Hello! This article will discuss the life values ​​of a person, their main categories, how they are formed and how they are rethought. Values ​​are the main goals and priorities that determine the essence of a person himself and manage his life. This is human faith, principles, ideals, concepts and aspirations. This is what each person defines for himself as the most significant and important in life.

What are life values ​​and their role for us

Life values ​​and guidelines are some absolute values ​​that occupy the first place in the worldview and determine the behavior of a person, his desires and aspirations. They help to solve tasks and set priorities in their own activities.

Each person has their own hierarchy of values. Values ​​determine how a person builds his life, how he makes friends, chooses a place of work, how he gets an education, what hobbies he has, how he interacts in society.

In the course of life, the hierarchy of values, as a rule, changes. AT childhood some significant moments are in the first place, in adolescence and youth - others, in youth the third, in adulthood - the fourth, and by old age everything can change again. The life values ​​of young people are always different from the priorities of older people.

In life, events occur (happy or tragic) that can turn a person’s worldview 180 degrees, make him completely rethink his life and re-set priorities exactly the opposite of what they were before.

This is a natural process of development of the human psyche and personality. Adapting to changing environmental conditions is a protective function of the body, part of the evolutionary process.

Each individual must be clearly aware of the hierarchy of their own value system. This knowledge helps in various difficult situations, for example, when it is necessary to make a difficult choice between two important things in favor of one. Focusing on paramount values, a person will be able to correctly determine the truly important for his own well-being.

Let's take a typical real life example. A responsible workaholic often stays late at work in order to successfully complete all the tasks. The work is really interesting, well-paid, promising, etc., but never-ending. Always gnaws at the feeling that he does not finish and does not have time. His beloved family is waiting for him at home. The wife periodically complains about her frequent absence from home, which also causes some discomfort. The feeling of dissatisfaction is delayed and becomes chronic.

It is precisely in such situations that it is necessary to learn how to prioritize correctly. It is important to decide what comes first. Solve the problem within yourself and stop rushing about. It is impossible to always do everything, but it is quite possible to choose the primary importance. By sorting out such cases and adopting your own hierarchy of priorities, you can minimize chronic personality conflicts.

There are no right and wrong systems of values ​​in life. For some, a successful career and recognition come first, for some, love and family, for others, education and continuous development.

But there is an awareness of their own hierarchy of priorities and internal consistency with them. And there is an internal conflict when a person has difficulty with and determining the true importance of things for himself.

Basic life values

Conventionally, life values ​​can be divided into two groups:

1. Material:, comfort, home, a sense of financial solvency and stability.
2. Spiritual:

• A family: intimate long-term stable in a couple, procreation, a sense of self-need for other people, a sense of community.
• Friends and work team: feeling of belonging to a group.
• Career: achieving a certain social status, respect for significant people.
• Favourite buisness: business project or hobby (music, sports, gardening, etc.), revealing one's own purpose and talents.
• Education and development any skills, qualities, personal growth.
• Health and beauty: harmony, good physical shape, absence of diseases.

Both categories are intertwined with each other and turn adjacent values. In the modern world it is difficult to separate material values ​​from spiritual ones. For the implementation of some, the presence of others is necessary. For example, to get an education, you need a certain financial condition that you need to earn. Money brings financial comfort to the family and the opportunity for leisure and interesting hobbies. For health and beauty, material investments are also necessary. The social status of a modern person is largely determined by acquired material wealth. Thus, material values ​​have become an integral part of spiritual ones.

Life values ​​are:

1. Universal (cultural). These are people's general ideas about what is good and what is bad. They are laid in childhood, and their development is influenced by the society surrounding a person. The model, as a rule, is the family in which the child was born and grew up. The priorities of parents become fundamental in the formation of their own system of values.

Community priorities include:

• physical health;
• life success (education, career, social status, recognition);
• family, children, love, friends;
• spiritual development;
• freedom (of judgment and action);
• creative realization.

2. Customized. Formed in every person throughout life. These are the values ​​that a person stands out from the generally accepted ones and considers important for himself. Politeness, kindness, faith in people, literacy, good breeding, and others can be a priority.

How to discover your values

Currently, psychologists have developed a large number of methods for diagnosing life values.

Tests can be taken online. They usually take no more than 15 minutes. The result appears within a few seconds. Methods are a series of multiple-choice questions or a list of statements for further ranking. Answers are not right or wrong, and results are not good or bad. Based on the results of testing, a list of the main values ​​of the respondent is issued.

These methods help a person quickly get a picture of their own priority hierarchy.

Test results can sometimes be confusing. It may seem to you that they are incorrect and your system of priorities does not correspond to the program issued. Try another test, and then another.

While you are answering the questions, you will be able to simultaneously decide for yourself what is most significant for you in life, and what is secondary.

Another option for determining your own value system is an independent analysis of your priorities.

To do this, you need to write on a piece of paper all the things that are significant to you in life. Everything that you respect, appreciate and value. It is not necessary to use terminology and peeped criteria and definitions. List exactly the words that things are called in your head.

After making the list, take a short break. Switch to another activity. Then take your list again and look at it carefully. Choose the 10 values ​​that are most important to you, cross out the rest. Now the list needs to be halved again. To make it easier to decide on priorities, scroll through different life situations in your head, determining what is more important.

As a result, 5 most significant values ​​remained. Rank them (list them in order from 1 to 5 in order of importance). If you can’t decide what is more valuable to you, imagine a situation in which you had to decide what would be harder for you to lose. And this is exactly what you cannot part with even in your thoughts, and it will be your highest priority life value. The rest will also remain important, but still secondary.

This way you get a picture of your life priorities.

How to instill life values ​​in the process of education

The question of instilling life values, as a rule, is asked by young parents. I want to raise my own person “correct” and happy.

The fundamental factor in choosing a system of priorities that you want to put aside in the child's head is the parents' own understanding of the "correct" values.

Ideas formed in childhood about important things will be fixed in the subconscious for the rest of your life and will remain unchanged without serious shocks. We are talking about universal values ​​(family, love, striving for self-development and education, career growth, material enrichment).

In a family where close people always come first, a child will grow up who values ​​love and interpersonal relationships. In a family of careerists, an ambitious personality is likely to form, craving a certain status. Etc.

The value system of a growing person is built on life experience. On what he “cooks” every day. It is useless to tell the younger generation that the most important thing in life is the family, when the father disappears at work, and the mother does not get out of her gadgets, depriving the child of attention. If you want to form in your baby, as you think, the “right” life priorities, show this by your own example. The values ​​of children are in the hands of their parents.

Rethinking values

The formation of basic life values ​​begins in the first year of human life and ends at about 22 years of age.

Throughout life, a person is faced with various situations that entail a rethinking of values. Such moments are always associated with strong emotional upheavals (both positive and negative) or protracted depressive states. It can be:

• marriage;
• birth of a child;
• loss of a loved one;
• a sharp change in the financial situation;
• serious illness (own or a loved one);
• tragic events on a global scale that claimed many lives);
• falling in love with a person who does not correspond to ideals;
• life crises (youth, maturity);
• old age (end of life).

Sometimes a change of priorities occurs involuntarily, when a person instinctively chooses the best path for his future life.

Sometimes, for example, in cases of crises, prolonged mental anguish leads to a rethinking and a new choice of life values. When in long depressions a person feels his own unhappiness, cannot find a way out - and the problem of life values ​​becomes acute. In this case, a conscious approach and a clear desire are required to rearrange the priorities.

Rethinking values ​​gives a person a chance to "start life from scratch." Change yourself, radically change your existence. Often such changes make a person happier and more harmonious.

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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, on the other hand, a person stacks bricks at random and randomly, 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 existence 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 poor people doomed in different countries to vegetate, hunger and suffering through the fault of totalitarian and ignorant ruling forces and because of the archaic traditions of lack of freedom and humility - all of them found themselves 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 intrusion of the anti-human into us, into our own life.

When for some reason a reliable barrier is not installed on the path of this invasion, when the inhumane is not opposed by the humane, 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:

• - eat properly;
• - 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. Not a single 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 rationally blur 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 has been 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 die out.

Therefore, appreciate 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).