Values Are Overrated
Where the Rubber Meets the Road
Modern society is filled with incessant talk about the importance of good values. Yet talk is cheap and values are overrated. Much more important than values are commitments, practices, and actions.
To choose a few examples: it's easy for me to say that I value human freedom, interpersonal empathy, aesthetic excellence, and intellectual honesty. Yet am I deeply committed to those things? Have I built up practices for achieving them? Do I consistently take action to bring them into reality?
Inevitably, so much of what I read online is just words, words, words. And, to be clear, I'm as guilty as the rest! But if the unit of greatness in philosophy is a life, then whatever values I voice pale in comparison to the commitments I put into practice through recurrent actions in the context of both my long-term projects and my relationships with family, friends, workmates, and neighbors. Most everything else is, as Shakespeare said, sound and fury, signifying nothing.
As Bryan Caplan likes to say, actions speak louder than words. His colleague and best friend, Robin Hanson, writes about this idea but from a unique perspective. We tend to look at values either from a far away (abstract) view or a near (concrete) view. We also puts these values in a time frame: happening now or in the future. We tend to give only a glancing thought to those abstract values that are down the road. While we struggle with those present day values (e.g., weight loss, exercising, starting a new routine, etc.).
Your post brought this all to mind.
Which brings up an interesting question: is a philosopher’s essay a work or merely talk?