1.3. Pragmatism: an epistemology to take pluralism into account

1.3.B. Values' plurality : reflecting on what matters and who for

For pragmatism, values amount to practical ways of taking care of things and emerge from transactions between individuals and their environment. As such, the very first step of value attribution consists, simply and mainly, in giving attention to something, may it be an event, a situation, an object or a person. For some authors, values are therefore « what matters » to people (Renault, 2016) and what they consider to be good (Thompson and McDonald, 2013).  

Pragmatism rejects the conception of values as pure emotions or pre-existing qualities of objects, situations, persons… Instead, it considers them as the result of both an immediate appreciation coupled with a reasoned and experience-based judgment, performed in a particular situation and relying on previous personal experiences and exchanges with other people. Valuation is thus a reflective activity that intends to determine what is desirable through exchanges with other perspectives and compared with other situations, events, objects and potential pre-existing experiences.

Thus, far from being overreaching and absolute qualities of objects or fixed and superior moral principles, values are the result of relations, connections and transaction between personal attitudes and extra-personal situational elements.