The Fascinating World of Values
Values, morals, and ethics, are the core of me as an individual, and the criminal justice system as a whole. My goal is to evaluate and understand the values that are most critical in my personal life, the criminal justice field as a whole, as well in Penology and how they relate or contrast to each other.
Values help shape your personal and professional life, as well as how you perceive and interact in the world around you. After reflecting on my life and evaluating my “ends to a means” or intrinsic values, to my surprise deciding what my intrinsic values are was harder than I first anticipated. After critical analysis of my most treasured values I came to realize that many of my top values were actually instrumental values that in reality only helped me attain an intrinsic value. After critical analysis of my values I have decided my hierarchy of values which include happiness, security, love, loyalty, wisdom and trust. It is however not only important to acknowledge what values you hold most dear but it’s also critical to understand why you treasure those values over others. The origins and sources of our values can lie in many different platforms such as experience, family, friends, personal logic and reasoning, as well as the law.
I can say without hesitation that happiness is my Summon Bonum value; it is at the top of my hierarchy of values. Borrowing form Socrates theory that “we can never choose evil if, that is, we know good” (Williams, Arrigo 2008:6) Socrates believed that “all our actions are intended to bring about certain consequences. If we are acting in order to bring about those consequences, Socrates would say, we must at least believe the consequences to be good or desirable”(Williams, Arrigo 2008:7) I believe that goodness Is actually a manifestation of happiness that is to say that we desire goodness because it ultimately makes us feel good about ourselves, happy. Security is another...