| In a world of potentially conflicting self-interests, no one can really say that one value system is better than another. But to what or whom do our ethical and moral standards commit us if they are "quite independent of other people's standards and agenda"? ... |
| It should be clear by now that "values" ... are in themselves no answer. "Values" turn out to be the incomprehensible, rationally indefensible thing that the individual chooses when he or she has thrown off the last vestige of external influence and reaches pure, contentless freedom... |
| The language of "values" as commonly used is self-contradictory precisely because it is not a language of value, or moral choice. It presumes the existence of an absolutely empty unencumbered and improvisational self. It obscures personal reality, social reality, and particularly the moral reality that links person and society. |