Page 229 - Cultural Studies Dictionary
P. 229
V
Values An item of value is something to which we ascribe worth and significance
relative to other phenomena. Cultural studies has been concerned with questions
of value in relation to (a) aesthetics, (b) political and cultural objectives and (c) the
justification of action.
The philosophical domain of aesthetics is concerned with the definition of Art and
also with the means by which to distinguish so-called good Art from bad Art. As such
it is centred on the making of artistic and cultural value judgements. Cultural studies
has been critical of the attempt to construct universal aesthetic criteria, seeing them
as class-based and elitist, and has shifted the axis of value judgement from the aesthetic
to the political. Having said that, there is a paradox in the fact that cultural studies
writers do value popular culture often over and above high culture.
Cultural studies has not produced a political manifesto or clear-cut statement of
its values and no doubt various writers in the field would disagree about what values
should be adopted were it ever to do so. However, cultural studies does seem to be
marked by a mix of values that centre on a democratic tradition that holds equality,
liberty, solidarity, tolerance, difference, diversity and justice to be contemporary ‘goods’.
These values suggest support for cultural pluralism and the representation of the full
range of public opinions, cultural practices and social-geographical conditions. They
suggest a respect for individual difference along with forms of sharing and co-
operation that are genuine and not enforced. Indeed, our best chance of
maintaining difference and pursuing a private identity project is to live in a culture
that values heterogeneity.
Cultural studies is for the most part anti-foundationalist in its stance, which
means that the adoption of particular values cannot be justified by recourse to
universal truth. Critics of this view have feared that the abandonment of
foundationalism leads to irrationalism and the inability to ground any radical
politics. However, we do not need universal foundations to pursue a pragmatic
improvement of the human condition on the basis of the values of our own
tradition. It is not possible to escape values any more than we can ground them in
metaphysics, so that historically and culturally specific value-based knowledge is
inevitable and inescapable. Nevertheless, values do require justification. Such
reason-giving is a social practice, so that to justify a value is to give reasons in the
context of a tradition and a community. Here, the acceptability of reasons has an
intersubjective base in the community norms for reason-giving.
Links Aesthetics, cultural politics, difference, epistemology, ethnocentrism, foundationalism,
pragmatism, truth
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