Socks
Years ago, in one of my transformation coaching engagements, I used to lovingly be called “Socks” and by a majority of them as I was considered too philosophical. “Socks” of course was obviously short for Socrates.
But I did enjoy being called that, even negatively. Because whether we like it or not, whether we analyze it or not, there is always a philosophy driving any decision one takes or action one executes. Without a doubt. Though we might not spend time evaluating those, it still doesn’t mean there is something underlying driving the “why” behind the “what” we do.
This is the third article discussing intrinsic values. I touched upon them the day before and yesterday. These intrinsic values could also be looked at through various philosophical thoughts. The five types of philosophical thoughts classifying the values in the test I used are as below.
Aristotelian - values that tell us what kind of virtues we should aspire to have, and what vices we should remove from our character. As well as desirable character traits, these virtues include pursuits like aesthetic experiences and knowledge.
Deontological - values that provide us with moral rules as to how we should act in certain situations. These rules determine what actions are permitted, forbidden, and morally required.
Communitarian - values that emphasize the individual's responsibility to the community (family or otherwise), along with values that regard the community as a large part of a person's social identity and personality.
Utilitarian - values that focus on minimizing suffering and maximizing happiness. If you have this philosophy, you'll favor actions that will do the most good, whether or not you know the people it will impact.
Libertarian - values that seek to maximize personal autonomy and political freedom, emphasizing freedom of choice, skepticism of government authority, and the importance of individual judgment.
True to form I came out with flying colors. My two top thought patterns were driven by Aristotelian and Libertarian patterns and they seemed to be an explanation for my style of thinking. Surprisingly, my scores were high in all of the remaining other three as well. Of course, thoughts are extremely context-sensitive and this might be just my preferred thought patterns.
Again, I look at these evaluations not as an explanation, but more as an input to my journey in understanding myself better and to use these for introspection on whether this is who I want to be, and on whether this is how I would like to think. So from that perspective, these might have some value.
The Clearer Thinking (dot) Org - The intrinisic values test
https://programs.clearerthinking.org/intrinsic_values_test.html