Values of Our Times by Deshun Li

Author:Deshun Li
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg

The viewpoint of Weber here illuminates our understanding of Value III. The nature of social fact expressed by the physical elements in human experience and in the perspective of the natural physical world, is still only physical and is a part of a rich natural world. There are various social facts—such as buildings, artificial productions and so on, which are sealed by human will though these are physical things. However, the natural characteristics of these things are not objects of research of the social sciences. Only a very small part (implied value) of the elements of reality (Weber words:‘colored by our value-conditioned interest’) has a special significance for our research. Implied value in reality has significance if we need to understand or recognize the cultural meaning of the social object in question. Furthermore, we must pay attention to its relation to values in researching the cultural meaning of social facts that is carried by physical material in the perspective of culture; in other words, we can understand and recognize them only when we put them in the context of values. And when we put them in the context of values, we will find value in these cultural things. We call this kind of value “Value III”, due to the implied values in social facts carried by physical materials.

Compared with spiritual social facts, we can know Value III better. Spiritual facts stay and are contained in the human mind or human heart; in other words, they exist in the way that human consciousness or understanding is aware of them. Of course, people cannot avoid experiencing some kind of effect of conventions or social systems and, in general, people have deep experience and knowledge about them because these factors regulate or constrict people’s actions, and determine what is good and what is bad. Therefore, they are the factors that construct the social world. Of course, we need to employ some visual objects (such as a crown for ‘king’, and a stick for ‘power’) in order to have ideas for them. But the knowledge we get is through consciousness. Spiritual fact presupposes spiritual relationships of human beings, and spiritual relations lie in the intersubjectivities of social life. This relationship differs, depending on the nation, culture, and period of history.

Value III lies in social facts carried by physical materials—or, better, Value III defines the nature of the social facts. Of course, the existence of social facts presupposes natural objects or materials of the natural world. In other words, it is in physical substance. But, how we can call such a thing a “social fact”? We do so just because there are ‘colored by our value-conditioned interest’, just as Weber said, namely value factors. Therefore, we can distinguish such a thing from a natural fact. However, though it is a very small part of a social fact with physical materials, it is very complicated, and the degree of complication is not less than that of materials. What kind of value it is, and how large

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