Revaluation of Values refers intially to the awareness of the hierarchy of my values and the priority one holds between the values within that hierarchy. To revaluate is to first ask what we value, then determine if it is in our interest to have that value within the hierarchy and or at the level or priority within the hierarchy. If we deem that a value is not in our interest we can change its place within our hierarchy, replace or remove it all together.
Revaluation of Values
There are two tools from the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, (1844-1900) that are very useful: the concept of the Revaluation of Values and the thought experiment of the Eternal Recurrence. The importance of the concept of the Revaluation of Values is to gain autonomy and control of our values and understand the priority we place on them such that we can guide ourselves to the good life. The usefulness of the Eternal Recurrence, as a thought experiment, is placing in context how we are conducting our lives so we can change the course of our decisions and value structure for our future.
Dale Wilkerson from the University of North Texas puts into context the function of our values and when revaluation would take place for us in Nietzsche’s understanding.
Because values are important for the well being of the human animal, because belief in them is essential to our existence, we oftentimes prefer to forget that values are our own creations and to live through them as if they were absolute...To maintain allegiance to such values, even when they no longer seem practicable, turns what once served the advantage to individuals to a disadvantage, and what was once the prudent deployment of values into a life denying abuse of power. When this happens the human being must reactivate its creative, value-positing capacities and construct new values. (Wilkerson. IEP. S.4, Paragraph 2)
There is a necessity for self-awareness and an ability to accept that what we once held in high regard may not be useful for us to continue to prioritize. There is a skill, a sense of courage, and a trust for oneself to have the ability to let go of that which we have held dear to us for a long time. Even if we get beyond our own personal attachment to a specific value structure, we will also have to face the social pressure of others who may expect us to uphold these values.
Value Hierarchies
Joseph Kranak, from Marquette University, wrote his 2009 Dissertation on the Revaluation of Values and explains Nietzsche’s view of the structure of our value systems. Kranak believes that our values our relational to one another, that the meaning of a value is determined by its relationship to other things that are important to us.
Values are relativistic and hierarchical feelings of rank order...the value of a thing is only meaningful in terms of its relative value compared to something else (Kranak Dissertation, pg 35)
Kranak also goes on to explain how our actions and decisions are guided by these value structures. Our decisions and actions being guided by values shows how meaning is imposed on our values through their priority ranking relationships. We will decide to do something because it is more important than another thing. If the first thing is not present, we may decide for the ‘second’ option.
Our actions are implicitly guided by their rank on such hierarchical orders of values as “orders or rank” and “tables of value.” (Kranak Dissertation, pg 36)
For revaluation, we first needs a sense of self-awareness. Once we are aware of our value priorities we can assess them and begin to restructure the hierarchy or the priority relationship between them. Some of our values we will learn to let go of because as Wilkerson said, they no longer serve to our advantage. Revaluation of Values is then to create and destroy some values while shifting the rank of others.
A revaluation of all values would be a re-ordering of all existing values into a different hierarchy, as well as the creation of some new values and the destruction of some old values. (Kranak Dissertation, pg 6)
In our pursuit for Meaning and Purpose, many things will change in our lives and it may be best to learn the ability for revaluation such that we can have a durable sense of well-being and fulfillment in life. Some tools that are important for this growth are supportive Friendships, Self-Awareness, the Reflective Mind Map and an ability to learn and train new habits when making the transition from old values to new ones.
Eternal Recurrence
The Eternal Recurrence is an idea that Nietzsche brought up that we can use to check how satisfied or content we are with the way our lives are moving. The Eternal Recurrence, looked at as a thought experiment, is basically questioning what one would think of their life if it would be repeated in exactly the same way for eternity. Once life ends, you automatically are born again in the same way without knowing of the life you just lived.
The usefulness of this concept is to motivate us to make decisions that balance out factors that we do not like about our lives such that we are happy and feel balanced. If we feel that our lives are good, that our mistakes and external unexpected misfortunes have been accounted for, we will want to live the same life again. The goal of living a life with Meaning Purpose to achieve a state where we could affirm and say ‘Yes!’ to this hypothetical thought experiment of living our life again and again for eternity.
Nietzsche explains the idea of the Eternal Recurrence in his book, the ‘Gay Science:’
The greatest weight.—What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!” (Nietzsche GS. pg 194, Aphorism 341).
Kranak see’s the eternal Recurrence directly relevant to the Revaluation of Values in the sense that when we think about the idea, it will put a test to our value structure. If our values give us guidance and direction in our lives, we will have to make sure that those values are in our advantage if we are to live a life worth living.
The eternal return is repeatedly described as a hammer...The significance of the metaphor of the hammer is that it is a force that is both creative and destructive. Just as the creation of new values requires the destruction of old values to create new ones, the hammer can be both destructive and creative, and thus can be a tool of revaluation (Kranak Dissertation, pg 134)
R. Anderson of Stanford University also makes a similar point in regards to the usefulness of the Eternal Return in understanding the value we have on our lives. We can use the eternal return to hammer away values that do not benefit us and build a value structure, followed by relevant habits that promote a good life. We must be able to take action in our lives and assert the kind of person we want to become down to the core value structure of our identity.
One imagines the endless return of life, and one’s emotional reaction to the prospect reveals something about how valuable one’s life has been. (R. Lanier Anderson SEP paragraph 2)
If we conduct the Eternal Recurrence thought experiment, we will be faced with a reality of the quality of our lives and how our agency has lead us to either feeling fulfilled or condemned. Most humans have the capacity for agency and thus can decide to change the values within their lives. Our deepest values have been with us for a long time and we have social reinforcement that cushions those values within us.
First being able to accept that a particular value is not within one's interest then developing a coherent attitude that does not harbour dissonance within and is intelligible to others is very important for our progress in the Revaluation of Values stage of growth. It can be very difficult to let go of a value set if all of our social ties are relative to a value that we have discovered is not in line with the Criteria of Adequacy from the Philosophy of Science Tool. We have the option to engage in building a coherent sense of self, Unity of Self Tool, that will give more authenticity to our life and build coherence within our sense of Meaning and Purpose.
If all of our worldly strivings and cravings were revealed, in the logic of eternal recurrence, to be no more than illusions, if every contingent fact of creation and destruction were understood to have merely repeated itself without end, if everything that happens, as it happens, both re-inscribes and anticipates its own eternal recurrence, what would be the affect on our dispositions, on our capacities to strive and create? Would we be crushed by this eternal comedy? Or, could we somehow find it liberating? (Wilkerson. IEP. S.7, Paragraph 10)
Having an understanding of our values is essential in the construction of a purpose and meaningful life. The Revaluation of Values and Eternal Recurrence are valuable tools one can utilize in the pursuit of a good life. Constructing a coherent set of values that is in line with our personal expression of our identity is the most foundational part of our structure of self for it is used to evaluate all other aspects of our lives. If we have an incoherent sense of values or value hierarchy, we will lead ourselves into problematic situations or end up with results in life we are not satisfied with.
To be wise would be to establish a set of values as soon as possible that are coherent and in line with our personal identity and self-expression. We can avoid problems that become layered on top of an unstable foundation of an identity that was not examined. The earlier we can make sense of our value structure, the sooner we can move forward in building relationships and making serious life decisions that impact our Journey irreversibly.
Link to Cambridge edition of Nietzsche’s ‘The Gay Science’:
ISBN: 978-0521636452
Joseph Anthony Kranak. 2009 Dissertation. Marquette University.
Dale Wilkerson Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://www.iep.utm.edu/nietzsch/#H4
R. Lanier Anderson. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2017. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/#EterRecuSame
AJ 26.2.18, 4.3.18, 13.3.18, 14.3.18, 27.3.20
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