Human Values, Moral Values and Social Value Judgements

© 2016 Abdulkadir Tanrikulu. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 01/14/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5049-9818-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-9819-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-9820-8 (e)

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Abdulkadir Tanrıkulu was born in Diyarbakır in 1961 and was educated in the Journalism faculty of Ankara University.

He left his studies of journalism and public relations in the 4th year. He worked as a journalist for two years during the most violent period in Turkey’s Southeast (1988-1990). Following this he took management positions in several private companies.

During his life following university he closely observed society. He observed that the instincts of people in situations where terrorism prevails affected their behaviour in an unhealthy manner. He witnessed the state becoming more aggressive and the destruction of the concept of justice and judicial organisations that would affect the future of the people.

He witnessed the effects of an unhealthy environment on forthcoming generations, how they suffered and how families lost hope. He wrote about these experiences in books several times but each time did not consider the end product to be sufficient and abandoned these projects, destroying the books.

The author also observed the spiritual interactions of the people and witnessed the reactions of religious organisations to an environment where terrorism was rife. The books he wrote on these subjects he also destroyed without publishing.

If you have no respect for your profession, the place you live, your individual or societal identity, your status within society, your beliefs, no matter what your ideology is, if you have no respect for human values you are merely a savage.

Eventually he came to this conclusion ‘If you cannot be human, you are nothing but a savage’.

Human values, moral values and social value judgements

When one looks back at human history from this point in time, 2013, one can see that tens of thousands of years have passed. During all this time humans have lived on earth alongside other creatures. Hundreds of thousands of varieties of animals, plants and countless other creatures both alive and inanimate have been existing on this planet we call earth for millions of years. And yet it appears that no other life form is as restless, insecure, dangerous and fearful of the future as human beings. Creatures in whom powers of reasoning are absent exist in a much more harmonious way than mankind. Despite the passing of millions of years no other creature apart from humans have changed their way of living due to perceived risk, concern for safety or fears regarding the future. Neither have they broken out of their accustomed ways and developed new hunting techniques or new designs for shelter and they have not, as humans have, changed their way of living by becoming increasingly wilder and developing a more aggressive attitude.

When one looks at animal life in general they appear to continue to live with a natural equilibrium. They have no health or social security systems, no doctors and interestingly, no need for fire. They appear, outside of a few minor clashes, to live in peace and at no point have groups of animals from Turkey declared war on animals living in Switzerland, or the animals of Africa declare war against those of Asia. In fact many surprising aspects are present in the world of non-human existence. And so, what of humans? They possess a well-developed brain, a mind capable of reasoning, a conscience that warns them of right or wrong and a vast wealth of both positive and negative experiences. Add to this their achievements in technological development and socialisation, their standing above other creatures in nature - the list goes on and on…

Despite all of this why can humans not live in peace like other animals and life-forms?

We have in-depth knowledge and can carry out mathematical computations regarding such matters as peace, war, disease, health, hunger and plenty. We know what they mean and this knowledge is shared by all people. We have almost limitless experience and still we keep enquiring. Human beings have their own law and justice systems with necessary precautionary elements and even though we are fewer in number than many other creatures – why is the bounty of nature not enough for us?

We’ve heard the classic answers to this – human greed, the human soul, the devil and other negatory factors. There must be some other reasons, outside of these; a trap, a system, a failing in values or maybe it is something entirely different of which we have no knowledge…

Despite all of our experience, all adversities and all of our struggles why can we not succeed in living as simple and peaceful way as other life-forms in nature?

HUMAN ETHICS,

MORAL VALUES,

SOCIAL VALUE JUDGEMENTS.

During the entire span of its existence humankind has managed to struggle against great adversity and reach the present day; fighting not only against nature but also against one another.

Human beings have gained great experience through their struggles against nature to find such necessities as food and shelter. Whilst protecting themselves against the destructive powers of nature, challenging geographical conditions and various other dangers human beings have paid a heavy price in the gaining of experience. By passing on this wealth of experience to their progeny mankind was able to continue to exist.

The people who acquired these gains and experience built shelters, houses and forts to allow them to hunt and to offer them protection. They developed weapons and learned that living together in settlements brought with it security and ease of collection of necessary foods and materials. In time living together in this way led to the establishment of civilisations and brought with it responsibilities towards one another. In the security provided by living together in this manner, human beings began to develop deeper concepts of individuals, family and society and in order to maintain peace among themselves they began to create rules and laws.

Thousands of years before the common era they established great civilisations. Within these civilisations the belief grew that human existence was important and that humans were the most important creatures in nature.

A great number of philosophers appeared among people and as well as beginning to understand the relationship between themselves and nature they began to find solutions to particular problems. As civilisations developed so did the interpersonal relationships within groups multiply and become complex. Wars between civilisations put and end to many great societies and a great deal of gathered knowledge was lost forever. In their place new civilisations were established and they prospered. During this period the more well- intentioned parties saw a continuous cycle of defeat and a great number of peace-loving, developed civilisations fell at the hands of more aggressive ones and were wiped from the face of the earth. For a temporary period the dominance of the oppressive civilisations continued. It is a consequence of the fact that these peaceable civilisations were conquered that we now exist on earth in hundreds of differing civilisations. Had there been in history no groups of people who had fought against this oppression then in today’s world there would be only two or three oppressive-natured civilisations in existence and they would be engaged in wars with one another. Now, consider the facts today. Within people living in the same society there are those who have this tyrannical streak and who would wish to control society but societies in the past and present have not permitted such hegemony in order to prevent oppression and to allow people to live consistently in a peaceful manner.

Even if they are far from ideal, the concepts that protect humanity in our world’s civilisations have been set up within a framework of truth and justice.

Throughout human history there have been a set of standards and ideals supporting mankind’s fight against tyranny and oppression. It is these standards, a set of human ethics, that are exclusive to human beings and set them apart from other creatures. These human ethics are value judgements and human moral standards that have been developed consistent with living conditions.

These values are with human beings from the moment they are born until the moment they die. They are not standards that have been imposed by any other person, organisation, group or society.

Human ethics are a privilege exclusive to humans that has been upheld from the very beginning without a grounding in anything else and whose existence is not owed to an extraneous source. Human ethics can also be viewed as a definition of the Truth.

These rights and privileges are the natural state of human beings and they begin the moment a person is born, ending at the time of their death with no need for them to be passed on or protected. The removal of any of these values from a person results in injustice and oppression.

Alongside these human ethics people have developed a series of value judgements in accordance with them. These in turn created the traditions and customs of societies some of which are in line with human ethics and some of which are more flexible. This still continues to this day in our societies where many societies live their lives through their cultures.

Societies created their traditions and customs in line with their living conditions and they therefore differ from one another. During different phases in societies, due to varying conditions the customs and traditions formed from human ethics became changed over time, fell foul of real human ethics and took as intractable a hold as religion over societies. As ideologies they held societies’ lives captive. Just like the gladiators of the Roman Empire or the bull fighting of today, in just about every country these kinds of old traditions are present and it is the human conscience that is primarily responsible for the perception of these human ethics. Whether the person is happy or unhappy with this situation is something that comes from the individual themselves. A conscience is a facet of human ethics which sooner or later will cause the person to sense whether a situation is right or wrong.

Human values along with human ethics of mind and conscience were responsible for the development of customs and traditions and during the formation of societies this resulted in justice. The need to be just and fair gained importance in the lives of societies when dealing with each other and with nature and in the coming into being of rights and freedoms.

The Greeks, Romans, Persians, Turks and other civilisations gained their places in history by attempting to create the balance of justice in their societies in line with the conditions of the time.

When one examines these developments one can see that these long struggles, oppression and wars are way off course from our current understanding of freedom, rights and justice.

One of the most important facets of human history are the monotheistic religions. In all of the monotheistic religions there have been prophets who have told the people that they are precious, that they must behave ethically and that they must fight against slavery and