The Values Beneath the Arguments
Policy disputes often appear to be about facts: does this intervention work? What will the budget cost? But scratch the surface and you find competing values: liberty versus security, efficiency versus equity, individual versus collective.
Until these underlying values are surfaced, factual arguments miss the point.
What Are Values?
Values are deep, relatively stable commitments about what is good, right, or important. They differ from preferences (which are surface-level) and from beliefs (which are factual claims). Examples include:
- Autonomy
- Solidarity
- Fairness
- Loyalty
- Care
- Authority
- Sanctity
Why Values Conflict
Values conflict is not a failure of reasoning — it is a feature of moral reality. Reasonable people prioritise values differently, and many real policy tradeoffs genuinely pit one value against another.
The error is to assume our own values are self-evidently correct and that those who disagree are ignorant or malicious.
Frameworks for Values Exploration
Several frameworks have been developed to help people articulate and compare their values:
- Schwartz's Basic Human Values model identifies ten universal value types arranged in a circular motivational structure.
- Moral Foundations Theory (Haidt) proposes six moral foundations that vary in importance across political cultures.
- Deliberative values mapping involves guided reflection on concrete cases before abstraction to general principles.
The Role of Tools
Our Values Explorer provides a structured environment for individuals and groups to identify, articulate, and compare their values — creating a common vocabulary for deeper dialogue.