Goods and Values

Article

Abstract

[In Russian]

The author contrasts the differentiation of substantial goods and the differentiation of medial values. The old substantial differentiation is metaphysical; all goods are divided into elementary and artificial, material and spiritual. The modern differentiation specifies the values of civilization. These values ensure social life without brutality. They differ from material and spiritual goods. The values are about truly human communication, which brings our intellectual (truth), moral (justice) and expressive (art) achievements into other people’s lives. The more people adopt the values of civilization (freedom, equality, human dignity), the more these values become values. The imperative of humanism: everyone should help everyone to adopt these values. Civilization in the normative sense is the unity of culture and rational social system, ethical teleology and universal morality.