What Holds the World Together? Controversies about Values in Times of Pluralism.

This paper examines the reasons for the increasing disputes between universal human values and sociocultural, or particular values, and investigates how to address these disputes from a philosophical standpoint. Following the introduction, the second section presents a summary of the factual role of these values in contemporary societies, drawing on data from the European Values Studies project. Although Europeans recognize the importance of both types of values, the influence of a reductionist approach to universal human values, such as free self-determination, is on the rise. Additionally, reductionist approaches to sociocultural values, such as ethnocentrism, nationalism, and religious fundamentalism, have also gained influence. The third section of this paper explores how these conflicting views dominate current public and political discourse. Section four argues that the natural law theory has failed to provide an objective foundation for either type of values. Consequently, section five aims to explore an alternative approach to various aspects of the issue. These aspects include the objectivity of values, the mediation between universal and particular values, and the role of practical wisdom in this mediation. Ultimately, the concluding section presents some lessons that Catholic thought can learn from this investigation.