Even though values unquestionably are difficult to measure, there can be no scientific warrant simply to ignore them. After all, molecules and atoms were unobservables whose existence was hotly debated among scientists of the late nineteenth century. The skeptics were persuaded only by the experimental results of a variety of investigators who were committed to the atomic model in the absence of evidence that others found persuasive.
For Hans Joas values are considered matters of individual consciousness and to those willing to accept the intuitive importance of values in explaining both individual and social outcomes, understanding their genesis is critical. The problem is extremely complex, however, for values appear to arise through a bewilderingly large number of pathways. (Hans Joas, 2000)
To some degree values are hard-wired into organisms via the mechanism of natural selection. Hard-wired values can be presumed to be virtually homogeneous within species. If, for example, we are interested in explaining the behavior of marmots, we must have some idea of the kinds of factors that drive, or motivate, marmots to engage in the kinds of behaviors they actually do engage in. Obviously, one of the things that motivate them is the desire for food, so we can apply some theory of food gathering that yields determinate behavioral predictions an optimal foraging theory and see how well it accounts for the observed behavior of marmots. In optimal foraging theory, the animal allocates its food-gathering behaviors in such a way as to yield the optimal number of calories per unit of energy expended. With the aid of ideas such as these, we can predict what marmots would do in different kinds of environments, and then carry out experiments to see how well the theory is supported. (Hans Joas, 2000)
To the degree that marmots are motivated to pursue......
