Horizons of Value Conceptions

Horizons is a critical inventory of value-related thinking, demonstrating that the mind has the ability to profile a distinctive circumstance in diverse ways. Readers are first invited to a historical inquiry into typical configurations of values, their collisions, and the worldviews that drive them. They are then introduced to the epistemologies employed by the social sciences, so that they are better able to gauge the potential of these disciplines for coming to terms with values. Axiology is portrayed as a field that has broken free from its neo-Kantian roots, benefiting from challenging new conceptual frames based in documents with global reach-mainly the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

After scrutiny of what various sociological models claim about values and the way in which empirical surveys approach them, Horizons reaffirms the assumption that social life and its dynamics condition the fate of values. Yet, for the sake of more accurate accounts, research should consider to a greater extent social stratification, and pressing macrosocial problems such as environmental protection, sustainable development, and attainment of some form of global equity. Social sciences' limitations modulate their ability to serve as an unequivocal guide for value choices. These limitations are a problem because of the significance of the process of dialogue and deliberation in value-related fields. Rather than advancing the allegedly universal characteristics of any one culture, in a world consisting of many civilizations, the imperative is to acknowledge pluralism and discern what is held in common.

Agnes K. Koos earned a licentiate in philosophy from University Babes-Bolyai (Cluj-Napoca, Romania), and performed three years of research training in philosophy with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. She received a M.A. in political science from the University of New Orleans.

Kenneth Keulman is the author of The Balance of Consciousness, and the editor and coauthor of Critical Moments in Religious History. He is review editor of Human Rights Review, and has been a member of the Berkeley-Harvard project in Comparative Ethics. Keulman is a Professor of Social Ethics at Loyola University, and has recently been a visiting scholar and associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University.