Essentials Of Unification Thought

The Head-Wing Thought

Axiology: A Theory of Value
The contemporary age is an age of great confusion and great losses. Wars and conflicts never cease,
and innumerable vicious phenomena are covering the world, such as terrorism, destruction, arson,
kidnapping, murder, drug abuse, alcoholism, declining sexual morals, the breakdown of the family, in '
justice, corruption, oppression, conspiracy, and slander. In the vortex of this great confusion,
humankind's most valuable assets are now almost lost. I am referring to the loss of mutual trust among
people, the deterioration of parental authority, teachers' authority, and governmental authority, the
neglect of personal human dignity, the disregard of traditions, and the loss of the dignity of life.
What is the cause of such confusion and losses? The cause is the collapse of the traditional views of
value. That is to say, the traditional points of view concerning trueness, goodness, and beauty have
been lost. Among these, the concept of goodness especially is being weakened, and existing ethical
and moral views are rapidly being lost. Then, what are the causes that have brought about the collapse
of the traditional views of value?
First, God is being eliminated from every field, including economy, politics, education, and art. At the
same time, religious values are being neglected. Since almost all traditional systems of values are
based on religion, a view of value that loses its religious basis cannot but decline.
Second, materialism, atheism, and especially Communism are infiltrating everywhere. Communism has
been working to divide people into two classes and then to foment conflicts between those classes by
increasing the sense of distrust and spreading hostilities everywhere. In so doing, it has criticized and
attempted to destroy the traditional views of value, claiming that traditional values are feudalistic and
intended solely to maintain existing social systems.
Third, conflicts among religions and philosophies are themselves speeding up the collapse of values.
Existing values have been established on the basis of the various religions and philosophies; therefore,
if disagreement among religions and among philosophies exist, people will be led to regard these values
as merely relative.
Fourth, traditional religious virtues have lost their power to persuade modern people, who tend to think
scientifically. When the teachings of traditional religions either contradict science or are unrelated to
science, they become unacceptable to modern people, who tend to place absolute confidence in
science.
When we see this collapse of traditional values, we realize that there is a need for a new view of value.
This new view of value, first of all, must be able to embrace the fundamental teachings of all religions
and thought systems. It must also be able to overcome materialism and atheism. Furthermore, it must
be able to embrace and even guide science. This would be a view of value that is centered on the
absolute God. Unification axiology seeks to present such a view of value.
This new view of value is presented for the sake of establishing our future society. The future society is
a society that will be built by people of original nature, whose intellect, emotion, and will are centered on
Heart. Accordingly, the future society will be a society where the activities of people's intellect, emotion,
and will are carried out in it harmonious way, centering on heart. Here, new values refer to the values
corresponding to the original faculties of intellect, emotion, and will.
The faculties of intellect, emotion, and will seek the values of trueness, goodness and beauty,
respectively, and through these, a society of trueness, an artistic society, and an ethical society will be
actualized. In doing so, what is required for the realization of a society of trueness is a theory of
education for the pursuit of die value of "trueness"; what is required to pursue a society of "beauty," or
an artistic society, is a theory of art for the pursuit of the value of "beauty"; what is required for the
realization of a society of "goodness," or an ethical society, is a theory of ethics for the pursuit of the
value of "goodness." Since axiology is a theory that deals generally with the values of trueness,
goodness, and beauty, axiology is the general theory serving as a basis for these three particular
theories.
The future society will thus be a society where the values of trueness, goodness, and beauty will be
realized; in that society, the economy will attain a high level of development through the progress of
science, solving, once and for all and completely, all the economic problems of society. People's lives
will be focused primarily oil realizing values. The society where the values of' trueness, goodness, and
beauty, centered on heart, are realized is a society with the culture of heart, or a society of unified
culture.

http://unification.org/ucbooks/euth/Euth04.htm