On origin of value emergence and transition

Shahab Sabahi

Energy and Environment for Development – Policy Analysis Research Group

The psychological and moral development of humanity occurred in the first millennium of Before Common Era (BCE). It is called the Axial Age (K. Jaspers) .Over this period inspirations and anxieties were yielded from natural disasters and social pressures, among societies in four distinct regions in the world. This kicked off the evolutionary process of human minds. It shaped the world traditions whose principles are still alive among our today’s societies.

The Axle Age viewed intense creativity in human thoughts and philosophies. The seed of intellectual change was spread and human beings looked profoundly in themselves to find purposes for a steady existence. YES it, self curiosity as an individual among a society, was the beginning of the dream of progress.

In the date of globalization, modernity, financial crisis, yet unsettled territorial disputes and ethnical clashes; to get the course of life change: Do we need to create more innovative value systems that reflect the realities of our world now? Do the traditions from the old days speak to our current condition?            

The east still, in part, tries to be faithful to the doctrines “immeasurable outlook” (Buddhists) or “concern for everybody” (Mozi: Jian ai). Societies, at large, still subscribe into these doctrines, however elites interpret and practice them in different ways. Inevitably these doctrines are still cohesive agents for Asian societies.

The story may differently shape in the rest of the world. Alexandre Kojeve describes a notion which could be attributed to democracy in the WEST. He suggests that the principles of liberty and equality in society had been established by the time of the battle of Jena, the task thereafter was not to find new principles but rather to implement them through larger parts of the world. They are certainly the chief principles which have been never implemented fully even in the west.

Both traditional value systems, the EAST’s and the WEST’s, are gradually faded away from societies’ core Their substitute is greedy notion (BANK like) of VALUE that favors few with large positive time preference instead of society as a whole.  In the vacuum of a meaningful value system, there is a potential for other traditions reversion in the form of fundamentalism.