Summary / Resumé
Hans-Joachim Höhn: Misjudged or overrated? On the questionable surplus of meaning of values
The importance of values is articulated repeatedly, even though in the field of ethics the status of values cannot be easily determined. Obviously, in the process of communication about morals there is a power of association, set free by the term ”value“, that makes up for the lack of clearness of the concept. The concept evidently has connotations of moral dispositions and sensitivities that are emotionally significant but difficult to define. The concept of value can not be satisfactorily defined by means of differentiation, demarcation and ”dissociation“ of other basic concepts of morals. This indicates the existence of a pre-reflective field of moral experience, characterized by the interweaving of being and utopia, of that which is good and just, evaluative and normative. Is there then an invisible moral network, a subliminal, widely branched moral rhizome? Is there a common root of moral experience to be discovered? Is this the key to comprehending the unconditional as the foundation of unavailable values?