“A person’s worth is measured by the worth of what he values.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
What is Worth? Is it some eternal, immutable verity that demands respect and compliance? Or, as Marcus Aurelius has proposed, is Worth conditional and dependent on what is valued by a person or society? Then there is the matter of assessing Worth, whether absolute or arbitrary. What is something Worth? How do we determine the value of things we own?
We can count the money in our checking account, look up our credit rating, or determine the financial value of our stock portfolio—but are these markers valid indicators of our financial Worth given the volatility of our mid-21st-century financial world? Perhaps even more importantly, how do we assess the Worth of our talents and capacities? Are we “worthy” of the respect and admiration others in our community might award us? Even more fundamentally, are we worthy of self-respect?
What is the scorecard being used to determine our Worth, the Worth of institutions that employ us, the Worth of our community, and the Worth of our nation? Is Worth determined by individuals or by a collective assembly of people (a society)? Are specific people living in diverse cultures likely to differ in their determination of Worth? Are individuals likely to establish their criteria for determining Worth that are often not aligned with the criteria used by the community in which they live and work?
The Construction of Worth
These important questions deserve clear answers. However, coming from different disciplines (ranging from economics, sociology, and political science to history, philosophy, and theology), the answers most often provided are rarely clear and inevitably controversial. To begin with, we need to acknowledge that the foundation of Personal Worth is not the same as the foundation of Societal Worth. We may agree on some basic values as a society that determine (as Marcus Aurelius proposes) the collective nature of Worth. However, a different set of values and alternative notions about Worth might exist in our individual lives and determine our personal actions.
This set of essays concerns the questions just identified. I begin this essay and the next essay with an exploration of personal worth, and then, in one essay, I consider worth to be defined by the collective and expressed in communities. In five subsequent essays, I identify an important bridge existing between personal and collective Worth. This is the bridge of Generativity. In our generativity and deep caring, we find the modes for translating Personal Worth into actions that operate on behalf of the Collective Worth. I portray a Worthy Society (blending of Personal and Collective Worth) in this series’ final essay.
Before considering the sources and dynamics of personal worth, collective worth, and generative worth, I disclose my perspectives (and biases) regarding the nature of Worth.
