Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 71 No. 2-3, 2001.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
Value Systems Today
Josip Oslić
; Katolički bogoslovni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
If we assume today's society is affected by a general »value crisis«, we face questions that neither the Church nor society can remain indifferent to. What happens in society is the constant »reevaiuation of all values« (Friedrich Nietzsche) that makes those same values superfluous. It is the »reevaiuation of all values« that has brought before today's society new questions and challenges. Since »material values« that stimulate having and possessing are dominant with most people, it is obvious that the spiritual-religious values are being suppressed and cast aside.
This exposition tries to point out basic value systems that have become prevalent in today's society of globalization and characterize the Church as a constitutive element of society. It is obvious that both the modern society and the Church are facing challenges and issues that require new consideration and answers. The Church connects the search for responses to these pressing issues to an opportunity for »new evangelization«. Therefore, we can say that the Church in the new millennium finds itself at the beginning connected to the issue of searching for a new »identity« for the Church itself or for the »new face« of the Church. In this article I bring to light a few topical principles of considering »the value crisis« as well as possible responses to the »crisis« of values.
The discussion on value systems nowadays should be conducted on three levels. The first level is directed towards the philosophical foundation on which today's value systems rest. I limit myself here to the following ethical principles: the principle of long-term responsibility for the technological civilization (Hans Jonas), the principle of responsibility for the Other (Emmanuel Lévinas) and the principle of political justice (Otfried Höffe).
The second level is directed towards »indifferentism« as a special aspect of the »ethical resistance« to the value systems in the society today. These considerations would like to show why modern man accepts some values and neglects others or is »indifferent« towards them.
Finally, the third level should move towards finding the possibility of overcoming the »value crisis« in which today's society has found itself, as well as towards opening the pathways of connecting and directing philosophical ethics to the Christian ethics. From that it should become obvious that political justice, dialogue, tolerance, respect for human rights, dignity of the person, love for your fellow man and community, as well of the community towards the individual are those cultural values that characterize our contemporaneity. I shall try to actualize the principle of subsidiarity as a possible response to the »value crisis« from the standpoint of the Catholic Church.
Ključne riječi
good; ethics; responsibility; science; nature; fellow-man; Other; person; political justice; subsidiarity; solidarity; dialogue; tolerance; indifferentism; ethical resistance; value crisis; society; Church
Hrčak ID:
29098
URI
Datum izdavanja:
20.5.2002.
Posjeta: 3.468 *