I. The Basis for Values and Various Kinds of Values
To begin our study of this new view of value, let us consider, first, what values are; next, tile basis upon which the various values come to exist; and finally, the different kinds of value.
A. What Are Values?
Broadly speaking, values can be categorized as either material values or spiritual values. Material values refer to the values of people's daily necessities, such as commodities; in contrast, spiritual values refer to values corresponding to the faculties of intellect, emotion, and will, or the values of trueness, goodness, and beauty. Of these two kinds, Unification Axiology deals primarily with spiritual values.
Value refers to a quality of an object that satisfies a desire of tile subject. That is, when an object has a certain quality that satisfies a desire or a wish of the subject and which is recognized as such by the subject, then that special quality of the object is called value. In other words, value is something that belongs to an object; yet, unless it is recognized as value by the subject, it does not become actual. For example, even though there may be a flower here, unless someone (the subject) perceives the beauty of that flower, the value of the flower does not become actual. In this way, in order for value to become actual, a subject must recognize the quality of the object and must appraise that quality as valuable.
B. The Duality of Desire, Purpose, and Value
In order to discuss values, we need to analyze the desire of the subject. Philosophical attempts to deal with questions of value (including material value), have generally focused on objective phenomena alone, excluding consideration of human desire. They have, therefore, tended to be weak, like a tree without roots or a building without foundation. A tree without roots cannot but wither; a building without foundation cannot but collapse. Accordingly, existing thought systems are showing their powerlessness today in solving various social problems. For example, economic theories, which deal with material values, have become not very useful in solving the phenomena of the current economic disorder. Many difficult problems, unexpected even by economists, are also emerging one after another, such as the impact that labor-management relations have on business results. Why is that so? The reason is that they have not correctly analyzed the human desire itself Though every economist knows the fact that the motivation of economic activity is human desire, they have not engaged in any serious analysis of desire; so their theories have become like buildings without a foundation. Thus, we begin by analyzing desire in order to understand such phenomena correctly.
Since people are beings of united Sungsang and Hyungsang in other words, beings with a dual mind (spiritual mind and physical mind) human desires, likewise, are of two kinds, namely, Sungsang desire and Hyungsang desire. Sungsang desire is the desire of the spirit mind, that is, the desire for trueness, goodness, beauty, and love, whereas the Hyungsang desire is the desire of the physical mind, that is, the desire for food, clothing, shelter, and sex.
Then, for what purpose do human desires exist? They exist for realizing the Purpose of Creation. God's purpose of creation is to have joy through loving His object. Conversely, the purpose of creation, especially for human beings, is to return beauty to God and to give joy to God. The purpose for which human beings were created can be fulfilled through the realizations of the three Great Blessings, namely, to be fruitful, to multiply, and to have dominion over all things (Gen. 1:28). Therefore, the purpose of creation for human beings is none other than the completion of the Three Great Blessings.
If, at the time of creation, God had given human beings purpose but riot desire, then the most they would have been able to do was to come tip with the thought, "There is a Purpose of Creation," or "The Three Great Blessings exist." Yet the Purpose of Creation, of the Three Great Blessings, would never have been realized. Therefore, God had to give people the impulsive willingness to actualize that purpose, the impulse of the mind to do or obtain something. Desire is that impulse. Accordingly, people gradually grow to maturity driven by an innate impulse to achieve the purpose of creation, namely, the Three Great Blessings.
Human desires include Sungsang desire and Hyungsang desire. In purpose as well, and in correspondence to desires, there are a Sungsang purpose and a Hyungsang purpose. The Sungsang purpose refers to the Sungsang aspect of the Purpose of Creation; and the Hyungsang purpose refers to the Hyungsang aspect of the Purpose of Creation.
A human being is also a connected body with a dual purpose, namely, the purpose for the whole and the purpose for the individual. Accordingly, the Sungsang purpose and the Hyungsang purpose aim to attain the purpose for the whole and the purpose for the individual, respectively. Thus, the Purpose of Creation is fulfilled through the accomplishment of the purpose for the whole and the purpose for the individual. The purpose for the whole is to serve the family, the society, the people, the nation, the world, and ultimately God, the Parent of humankind; thus it is to give joy to humankind and to God. On the other hand, the purpose for the individual is to live for one's own growth and to seek one's own joy. Not only people, but also all things, have a purpose for the whole and a purpose for the individual.
The way in which things accomplish the purpose of creation is different from the way people accomplish their purpose. Inorganic substances fulfill their purpose of creation by following natural law; plants, by following the autonomy of the Principle (life) I within them; and animals, by following their instinct. People, however, must accomplish their purpose of creation by following the desire given to them by God, using their own free will and according to their own responsibility. Desire is the impulse of the mind to attain a certain purpose. The desire to attain the purpose for the whole is called the desire to realize value, and the desire to attain the purpose for the individual is called the desire to seek value. Accordingly, the Sungsang desire and the Hyungsang desire each have the desire to realize value and the desire to seek value.
The Sungsang desire and the Hyungsang desire are called "dual desire"; the desire to realize value and the desire to seek value are referred to as the dual desire corresponding to the whole and the individual. With regard to purpose, the Sungsang purpose and the Hyungsang purpose are called "dual purpose"; the purpose for the whole and the purpose for the individual are referred to as the dual purpose corresponding to the whole and the individual. With regard to value (to be explained in detail later), there are Sungsang value and Hyungsang value, which are called "dual value." Realized value and sought-after value are referred to as the dual value corresponding to the whole and the individual. An arrangement of the duality of desires, purposes, and values in relation to one another will give us Fig. 4-1.
Fig. 4-1: The Duality of Desire, Purpose, and Value
C. Kinds of Value
Value is the quality in the object that satisfies the desire of the subject. Desires can be divided into Sungsang desire and Hyungsang desire; as a consequence, there are also Sungsang value and Hyungsang value (Fig. 4-1). Sungsang value is a spiritual value that satisfies 2 the Sungsang desire; it consists of trueness, goodness, beauty, and love. 3 (To be precise, love is the basis for the values of trueness, goodness, and beauty.) Trueness, beauty, and goodness are the values corresponding to the three faculties of the mind, namely, intellect, emotion and will. That is to say, when the subject appraises an element of the object as a value, the subject appraises it as trueness, beauty, or goodness, according to the faculties of intellect, emotion, or will, respectively.
On the other hand, Hyungsang value, which satisfies the Hyungsang desire, refers to the value of daily necessities, such as food, clothing, and shelter-namely, material value (commodity value).4 Material value is the value necessary for physical life, or the value that satisfies the desire of the physical mind. Physical life is the basis for tile growth of the spirit person and for the fulfillment of the Three Great Blessings. Thus the Hyungsang value is a requisite for the realization of Sungsang value.
Love is the basis of the values of trueness, goodness and beauty. The more the subject loves the object, and the more the object loves the subject, the truer, the better, and more beautiful the object comes to appear to the subject. For example, the more parents love their children and the more children love their parents, the more beautiful the children will look. And when children look more beautiful, the parents will feel like loving them even more. In that way, love is the source and foundation of value. Without love, true value will not appear. Accordingly, if we experience the love of God and lead a life of love, we will be able to experience and actualize more brilliant value than we have ever experienced before.
In this way, value includes both Sungsang value and Hyungsang value. Axiology, however, is a philosophical field that deals primarily with Sungsang value.
