VALUES AS GUIDES IN FINDING THE MEANING OF LIFE IN THE CONDITIONS OF WAR

Abstract

In times of war, many people rethink their own lives, understand that planning for the future in such a period is questionable or unrealistic, the things they are used to may be unavailable or limited, the losses and pain experienced by Ukrainians raise questions about why this happened, how to continue living, what to live for, how to cope with all this. In such conditions, people lose something valuable to them and cannot find or see anything else valuable. The article analyzes the research of psychologists on the category of «values», since the inability to see the valuable in one's own life can lead to an existential vacuum (a state in which a person experiences his or her life as meaningless). Particular attention is paid to the understanding of values in the logotherapy of V. Frankl, who argued that the discovery of meaning is aimed at the value potential that is inherent in each person, everything that potentially has meaning must be valuable, and when something valuable is realized, meaning is felt. The article analyzes approaches to classification of values and their systematization. The author analyzes the structure of values proposed by M. Scheller, and introduces the concepts of «objective values», «universal values» and «absolute values». The article presents S. Kratokhvil's views on the «pyramidal» and "parallel" value systems. It is determined that «pyramidal» value systems provoke reactive depression at the moment when the pyramid collapses, while balancing values in the direction of a «parallel» value system, where several life spheres coexist equally next to each other, can save a person from unhappiness. Also, a «parallel» reorientation will allow a person to perceive the wide possibilities of finding meaning and will not allow him or her to impose spiritual blinders on his or her world.