40 2 CHAPTER 2 2.5 VALUES Contrary to the topic of Autonomous Weapons, the concept of values has been studied extensively in the fields of Moral Philosophy and Psychology. This section presents a definition of values as used in this research, followed by an overview of theories that describe universal values, an overview of the values related to Autonomous Weapons and concludes with a value hierarchy. Value theories Value Theories are well-studied in the fields of Moral Philosophy and (Moral) Psychology. Moral Philosophy has a long and rich history in examining values and in this field theoretical questions are asked to investigate the nature of value and goodness (Schroeder, 2016). Often a distinction is made between instrumental values, which means there is reason to favour it for its effect that can lead to good things (RønnowRasmussen, 2002), and intrinsic values, which ‘…is a kind of value such that when it is possessed by something, it is possessed by it solely in virtue of its intrinsic properties.’ (Bradley, 2006, p. 112). Although Moral Philosophy is mainly concerned with theories of what ‘ought to be’ and is in a strict sense unaffected by empirical results (Alfano & Loeb, 2014), one of its branches: Applied Ethics is relevant for our study, because Applied Ethics bridges the abstract ethical theories and moral practice. In this study, we choose not to use the theoretical Value Theories of Moral Philosophy, but turn to the fields of Moral Psychology and Applied Ethics to get an empirical view in order to get insight into the ‘is’ situation instead of what ‘ought to be’. Literature in Moral Psychology differentiates values from attitudes, needs, norms and behaviour in that they are a belief, lead to behaviour that guides people and are ordered in a hierarchy that shows the importance of the value over other values (Schwartz, 1994). Values are used by people to justify their behaviours and define which type of behaviours are socially acceptable (Schwartz, 2012). They are distinct from facts in that values do not only describe an empirical statement of the external world, but also adhere to the interests of humans in a cultural context (Friedman, Kahn Jr, Borning, & Huldtgren, 2013). Values can be used to motivate and explain individual decision-making and for investigation of human and social dynamics (Cheng & Fleischmann, 2010). Many definitions of values exist. For example, Schwartz (1994, p. 21) describes values as: ‘desirable transsituational goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles in the life of a person or other social entity.’. This is quite a specific description compared to Friedman et al. (2013, p. 57) who define values as: ‘…what a person or group of people consider important in life.’. The existing definitions have been summarized by Cheng and Fleischmann (2010, p. 2) in their meta-inventory of values and they state that: …‘values
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjY0ODMw