Investigations of Worth: Towards a Phenomenology of Values Dale Hobbs Jr
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Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations (2009 -) Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Projects Investigations of Worth: Towards a Phenomenology of Values Dale Hobbs Jr. Marquette University Recommended Citation Hobbs, Dale Jr., "Investigations of Worth: Towards a Phenomenology of Values" (2017). Dissertations (2009 -). 740. http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/740 INVESTIGATIONS OF WORTH: TOWARDS A PHENOMENOLOGY OF VALUES by Dale (D.J.) Hobbs A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, WI August 2017 ABSTRACT INVESTIGATIONS OF WORTH: TOWARDS A PHENOMENOLOGY OF VALUES Dale (D.J.) Hobbs Marquette University, 2017 The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a clear and compelling account of the existence and nature of values within a phenomenological context. Values such as beauty or virtue are certainly a major part of our experiential lives. After all, what would life be worth if we could never describe a painting as beautiful, for example, or a beverage as delicious? Nevertheless, understanding what these values are on their own terms has historically been a rather difficult task. Certainly, they are not ordinary objects that could be seen or heard, touched or tasted, like the physical objects to which they seem to be connected in some mysterious way. In this dissertation, I argue that a phenomenological approach enables us to give a solid account of the role that values play in experience. Working in dialogue with Husserl and other phenomenologists and related thinkers (especially Max Scheler and Nicolai Hartmann), as well as with recent commentary, I develop my own account of values as lying on the phenomenological “horizons” of experience. This interpretation, I argue, enables us to explain how notions like beauty or deliciousness play such a dramatic role in our everyday lives without committing us to any unwarranted ontological assertions. Throughout this project, I analyze the various structures that govern our valuative experiences in order to develop a rigorous theoretical account of what all these experiences have in common. As part of this task, I investigate the various different types of values (e.g., aesthetic values, moral values, sensual values, etc.), the connection between values and subjectivity, and the link between acts of valuation and acts of the will. My aim in the dissertation is to make clear the basic role that values as such play in the conscious life of the experiencing subject throughout our daily lives. Ultimately, I hope to clarify some of the difficult theoretical issues surrounding our experiences of values in order to clear the way for more specific investigations into particular regions of values (e.g., a phenomenology of aesthetic experience) to be carried out on the basis of this overarching model. i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Dale (D.J.) Hobbs I would like to express my gratitude to my dissertation director, Dr. Sebastian Luft. Not only was he instrumental in helping me to expand my grasp of certain philosophical ideas – phenomenological and otherwise – throughout my doctoral education, his comments during the process of writing this dissertation have been consistently helpful and insightful. This project would not be what it is today without his assistance. I would also like to express my thanks to the second reader of this dissertation, Dr. Michael Monahan. His excellent comments, particularly on Chapter V, were invaluable in forcing me to attain a greater level of clarity in my ideas and in my writing. I am also grateful to the rest of my dissertation committee – Dr. Noel Adams, Dr. Javier Ibáñez-Noé, and Dr. Tom Nenon – for their assistance with and participation in this project. Finally, allow me to thank en masse all of the colleagues, friends, and teachers who have assisted my philosophical development over the years, whether at Marquette University, at the University of Memphis, or at my alma mater, Christian Brothers University. I would particularly like to thank Dr. Max Maloney at CBU, whose class on the notion of personhood first sparked my interest in philosophy, and who first introduced me to the work of Max Scheler that has been so influential in my own thought about values. Nonetheless, I am truly grateful to everyone who has had a hand in my evolution as a philosopher. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................... i TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... ii INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER I: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND SURVEY OF LITERATURE .... 12 The Origins of the Phenomenology of Values: Lotze, Brentano, and Husserl ...... 13 The Other Axiologists: Scheler. Hartmann, and Beyond ...................................... 22 The Dark Age of Values ........................................................................................ 31 The Axiological Renaissance ................................................................................. 35 Conclusions: The Path Ahead ................................................................................ 40 CHAPTER II: THE NECESSITY OF A PHENOMENOLOGY OF VALUES .............. 43 Husserl’s Three Vernunftarten ............................................................................... 45 Husserl’s Limitations: Reason and the Vernunftarten ........................................... 56 The Genuine Independence of Values: Scheler and Hartmann ............................. 68 Conclusions: An Independent Phenomenological Investigation of Values ........... 80 CHAPTER III: THE IDENTITY OF VALUES ............................................................... 81 The Question of Values: Three Examples ............................................................. 84 The Question of Values: Scheler and Hartmann’s Answer ................................... 88 The Impossibility of Objective Values: A Critique ............................................. 104 iii A Superior Model: Husserl on the Horizonality of Values.................................. 109 The Necessity of Values in Experience: A Controversial Claim ......................... 126 Conclusions: The Essential Nature of Values ...................................................... 136 CHAPTER IV: PURE VALUES AND VALUABLE THINGS .................................... 137 Pure Values: The Vanishing Point ....................................................................... 138 Valuable Things: A More Complex Experience .................................................. 148 Values and Wertnehmen: Various Examples of Valuation .................................. 153 The Modes of Valuation: Four Categories and a Digression ............................... 160 A Succession of Values: The Good and the Bad ................................................. 171 Conclusions: The Unity of Value-Experience ..................................................... 183 CHAPTER V: VALUES AND SUBJECTIVITY .......................................................... 185 The Problem of Subjectivity: A Demonstration .................................................. 186 The Evidence of a Phenomenology of Values: The Apodictic and the Adequate 190 Value and Value-For: Values and the Subject ..................................................... 197 Valuative Perspectives: The Source of the Difference ........................................ 203 The Acquisition of Taste: A Genetic Account ..................................................... 216 The Subjective Structures of Valuation: A Descriptive Phenomenology ............ 230 Conclusions: Some Things Change, Some Remain the Same ............................. 241 CHAPTER VI: VALUES AND VOLITION ................................................................. 243 Values on the Horizon: The Motivation of Volition ............................................ 246 iv Values and Volition: An Essential Connection ................................................... 253 The Value of Living: Values and the Lifeworld .................................................. 259 The Three Modes of Consciousness: A Summation ............................................ 274 Values and Morality: Towards a Phenomenology of Ethics ............................... 278 Conclusions: The Indispensability of Value-Consciousness ............................... 283 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 286 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 294 APPENDIX: QUOTATIONS FROM GERMAN SOURCES ....................................... 297 1 INTRODUCTION One of the foremost merits of phenomenological philosophy is the fact that it can be consistently applied to the practical problems that confront us in our everyday lives. In fields as diverse as cognitive science, medicine, and advertising, the theoretical insights unlocked by phenomenological investigations of consciousness have had a tremendous impact, at least within certain circles.1 Indeed, this emphasis on the practical, on the commonplace, is a central one for phenomenology as such. The very founder of the discipline, Edmund Husserl,