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SPIRITUAL AND MORAL VALUES OF THE INDIVIDUAL AS AN OBJECT OF PEDAGOGICAL ANALYSIS

The article analyzes the approaches of researchers in various fields of scientific knowledge to defining the essence of the concept of “value”. The historical and comparative analysis of the genesis of this concept is carried out. Attention is focused on the characterization of the forms of values that have been established in pedagogical science. The relationship between values and spirituality of a person is shown. The spiritual values as a pedagogical category are characterized, their functions are defined.
Keywords: value, spirituality, spiritual and moral values, functions.

Drozd M.
is a second (master’s) level student of higher education,
H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

10.34142//2708-4809.SIUTY.2022.76

In the course of the scientific search, it was found that there is no single approach to the interpretation of the concept of “value” in the research space. The problem of values is studied in an inseparable context with the definition of the essence of man, his creative nature and ability to create the world and himself in accordance with the range of values.

The analysis of the content of the concept of “value” dates back to ancient philosophy. Socrates was the first philosopher to try to answer the question of what goodness, mercy, and beauty are, regardless of the actions or things to which these terms refer. In his opinion, the knowledge achieved by defining these basic life values is the basis of moral behavior [7].

German philosophers made a significant contribution to the development of axiological thinking. In particular, I. Kant contrasted the sphere of morality with the sphere of nature with the reservation that values do not have independence, since they depend on the requirements of the individual and are aimed at the will and the goals set for it. He believed that the nature of values determines the purposes they serve.

While goals can be subjective and objective, values are relative or absolute. Also, in the theory of value of Kant’s concept, “value” is combined with the concept of “culture”, which “actually consists in the social value of society”. The philosopher argued that the highest value and form of culture is the moral perfection of the individual and society as a whole.

Psychologist D. Leontief suggested that there are three forms of values:

a) values as social ideals, which are the product of social consciousness and social ideas of the individual about perfection in various spheres of life;
b) values as the material embodiment of these ideals in the actions or creations of specific people;
c) values as a motivating structure of the individual, encouraging him or her to materialize social value ideals in behavior and activity.

According to the scientist, these forms are temporary, namely, an individual assimilates social norms as models that encourage him or her to be active, and the process is an objective embodiment of these models. Over time, objectively embodied values become the basis for the formation of social ideals.

In pedagogical science, researchers [1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6] distinguish three forms of values, namely

a) value as an abstract idea developed by the public consciousness of the attributes of the good in various spheres of public life (they can be universal, eternal (truth, beauty, justice) and specific historical (equality, democracy))
b) in an objective form in the form of works of material and spiritual culture or human deeds – specific material embodiments of social value ideals (ethical, aesthetic, political, legal);
c) social value, broken down through the prism of individual life, is part of the psychological structure of an individual as a personal value – one of the sources of motivation for his or her behavior.

It should be noted that since the mid-twentieth century, the concept of values has been aligned with the spiritual world of the individual in scientific discourse. If reason, rationality, and knowledge are the most important components of consciousness, without which appropriate human activity is impossible, then spirituality formed on this basis belongs to those values that are associated with the meaning of human life.

According to Adler, spirituality is a dynamic force that stimulates an active process of human self-improvement. This force is manifested in the achievement of a goal, in which all physical and mental movements occur in interaction. It should be noted that spirituality is most fully revealed through a system of values such as goodness – the highest level in the hierarchy of values; the meaning of life – the greatest good in human life; ideal – a person’s spiritual orientation towards the meaningful and complete; truth – one of the greatest values that determines the importance of human life; beauty is a person’s spiritual orientation to beauty; faith is the quality of a person’s spiritual state that makes it possible to give meaning to his or her existence; hope is the quality of a person’s spiritual state that opens his or her perspective and gives meaning to his or her spiritual endeavors; love is the spiritual energy of a person that connects him or her with other people and with the social environment in general [8, p. 7-8].

Spiritual values include social ideals, views and assessments, norms and prohibitions, goals and projects, norms and standards, principles of behavior expressed in the form of normative ideas about right and wrong, beautiful and ugly, just and unjust, legal and illegal, the meaning of history and human destiny, etc. While objective values are the object of human needs and interests, the values of consciousness perform a dual function: they are the essence of a separate value sphere and a criterion for evaluating objective values.

It should be emphasized that the researcher O. Klymyshyn considers spiritual values as a pedagogical category through a set of axiological functions, namely

a) creating feelings – combines semantic and procedural aspects of education, stimulates intellectual initiative (realized by updating the meaning of the process, object, highlighting specific facts and provisions, critical understanding of information, understanding of meaning, extracting meaning, internalizing values, acquired meaning)
b) evaluating, which is expressed in the development of an adequate assessment of the phenomena of reality and spiritual life;
c) an indicative function, defined in the ability to determine the priority status of personal characteristics based on the specified parameters [6].

Thus, based on the analysis of scientific sources, we conclude that in modern society, the most relevant spiritual values are responsibility, tolerance, mercy, dignity, and self-sufficiency. The formation of spiritual values does not mean a forced external influence on a person, but rather the creation of conditions for his or her self-development, self-improvement, and involvement in spiritually oriented activities. Thanks to this process, spiritual values are transformed into personal qualities and are manifested in the actions, behavior and activities of the individual.

List of references

1. The main spiritual priorities of student youth: directions of transformation. Higher education of Ukraine. 2008. № 1. С. 72-75.
2. Dobrynina V., Kukhtevych T. Value orientations of students and student youth. Alma mater. 2003. № 2. С. 13-15.
3. Dolzhenko V. O. Education of spiritual values in student youth in a multicultural space: PhD thesis: 13.00.07. Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University. Luhansk, 2007. 20 с.
4. Kobernyk O.M. Education of a growing personality: value dimension: monograph: VPC “Vizavi”, 2020. 222 с.
5. Education of spiritual and moral values in students of pedagogical universities: PhD thesis … Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences: 13.00.07. Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University. Luhansk, 2011. 20 с.
6. Philosophy of human-centeredness in the educational space. Kyiv: Znannya Ukrainy Publishing House, 2010. 520 с.
7. Plato. Collected works: in 4 vols. A. A. Taho-Goda; trans. from the ancient Greek. Dumka, 1990. Vol. I. 860 p.
8. Savchyn M. V. Methodologemes of psychology: monograph. Kyiv: Akademvydav, 2013. 221 с.