Vital values are the values of bodily-vital life — health, vitality, vital fullness. They form the first level in the value stratification of Dietrich von Hildebrand (Ethics, 1953/1973).
Vital values are real, but not the highest objective values. They stand below intellectual, moral, and aesthetic values and are surpassed by the ontological dignity of the person. Whoever reduces personhood to vital qualities (such as brain activity, vital functions, cardiopulmonary stability) commits a categorial error: the person is not the sum of their vital values. Even with the loss of vital actualization (coma, vegetative state), personhood and its dignity remain unharmed.
Vital values are nevertheless not merely biological facts — they are genuine objective values that merit a value-response. Animal welfare (German) counts among the vital values and grounds the moral relevance of non-personal living beings.
Ontological classification:
- Superordinate concept: Objective Value
- Subordinate concept: Animal Welfare (German)
- Disjoint with: Intellectual Value, Moral Value, Aesthetic Value
Chapter assignment: Chapter 4: What Is Human Personhood? (German)
Sources: Generated by querying the Personhood ontology.
Further sources:
- Hildebrand, D. v.: Ethik (1953/1973), in: Gesammelte Werke, vol. II. Regensburg: Habbel (Eng.: Ethics).
- Seifert, J. (2014): Ontological Categories: On their distinction from transcendentals, modes of being, and logical categories. Anuario Filosófico 47(2), 315—356.