Q&A: The Incommensurability of Values
The Incommensurability of Values
Question
With God's help,
Hello, I’m interested to know what the Rabbi thinks is the way to resolve the paradox of the incommensurability of values. After all, the fact is that we make decisions every single day…
Does it sound reasonable to you to say that God's will is "unified," but only from our perspective (our intellect) does it split into several separate values, even though they have a primary source that we do not fully identify.
And if so, does a shared scale of value in fact exist? True, this challenges the initial assumption of separate values, and that has its difficulties, but in my humble opinion it is not entirely far-fetched, especially since the paradox is seemingly impossible to bridge, yet in daily life we manage with it reasonably well.
Answer
I have said and written several times (for example, in the third book of the trilogy) that there is probably a common foundation for all values, including moral values and religious values, and reflecting on it yields a hierarchy among them. I also explained why this does not contradict the definition of values as ends rather than means. See there.