50. Reason Can Triumph Over Instinct
Today's post focuses on a psychological study of personal values. It may have an academic tone and introduces concepts mentioned previously on this blog. You may not be familiar with all of them. My goal is to show you that something "scientific" and "backed by data" is not enough for us to understand. We need explanations. Reason will triumph over our instinct to believe.
Schwartz et al. list 19 values they think humans have in their study called "Refining the Theory of Basic Individual Values." They use empirical data as evidence of their ideas but don't explain where these values come from or why they exist. Data isn't enough. We need to understand and explain things to learn. We know that good explanations are what we need for our knowledge to grow and good explanations are hard to vary.
Here are the values they talk about:
- Self-direction–Thought: Being free to think and have ideas
- Self-direction–Action: Being free to act as you want
- Stimulation: Seeking excitement and new things
- Hedonism: Enjoying life's pleasures
- Achievement: Succeeding by society's standards
- Power–Dominance: Having control over others
- Power–Resources: Having control over resources
- Face: Keeping a good public image
- Security–Personal: Feeling safe where you live
- Security–Societal: Feeling safe in society
- Tradition: Keeping cultural and family traditions
- Conformity–Rules: Following laws and rules
- Conformity–Interpersonal: Not upsetting others
- Humility: Recognizing your smaller role in the big picture
- Benevolence–Dependability: Being reliable
- Benevolence–Caring: Caring for people close to you
- Universalism–Concern: Caring about justice for everyone
- Universalism–Nature: Protecting nature
- Universalism–Tolerance: Accepting different people
Good explanations for why we hold certain values should come from two main sources: evolutionary knowledge and explanatory knowledge (for more details see here and in the book The Beginning of Infinity). Let's consider this idea further. If our values can be shaped or influenced by explanatory knowledge—our growing understanding of the world—then it's possible for new values to emerge as this knowledge expands. This contrasts with values that might be more tightly linked to our genetic makeup, which would change much more slowly due to the slower pace of biological evolution. This difference allows values based on learned knowledge to replace those based on our biological instincts.
An example of this is the adoption of non-violence in political movements. Humans naturally have instincts for aggression and defense, which are survival mechanisms. Yet, leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. promoted non-violence as a method of protest and societal change, using rational and ethical arguments. This approach shows that by understanding and reasoning, we can choose to follow values that go against our instincts - our values can improve as we learn more. We can learn from our mistakes and develop new ways of thinking that make us better people.