Values and Principles

Principles are external natural laws, that is, “laws whose content are set by nature and that therefore have validity everywhere” (Natural Law, 2010, para. 1). Stephen Covey (2010) suggests, principles are “universal and timeless,” (para. 3) applying to everyone, everywhere, all the time. The word “values” is often used interchangeably with principles. They are, however very different. Values are defined as “Worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor; utility or merit… a quality considered worthwhile or desirable” (2010, para. 1). In the context of this paper, values are “…internal and subjective. Covey proclaims that values govern people’s behavior, but principles ultimately determine the consequences” (2010, para. 3). There may be social input components to values, but values are ultimately personal.

That we are meaning driven beings is less in dispute than why we are meaning focused, even meaning obsessed at times. Frankl noted that “meaning differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour” (as cited in Viktor Frankl: A Man’s Search for Meaning, 2010, para. 15). Whatever the origins of the human desire for obtaining meaning, it is clear that the desire exists. We must, however, be clear that we don’t jump to conclusion and enthusiastically toss all motivations and desires into the search for meaning basket. As Frankl and others point out, the desire to live a “worthwhile” life is not the same thing as striving for a “meaningful” life. However varied and unique the desire for meaning in life, there are other driving interests of fulfillment. This is important to recognize as we attempt to define the key principles of meaning making. And thus “knowing that meaningfulness analytically concerns a variable and gradient final good in a person's life that is conceptually distinct from happiness, rightness, and worthwhileness [among other motivators and goals] provides a certain amount of common ground” (Meaning of Life, 2007, para. 13) for the discovery of guiding principles.