On the Concept of Value‐Commitments

Abstract

This paper analyzes the nature of value‐commitments, conceived as a generalized symbolic medium of interchange in the processes of social interaction, in this respect paralleling money, power, and influence. Commitments constitute moral obligations of units of a system of social interaction to maintain the integrity of a value‐pattern and to strive toward its implementation in action through combination with non‐value factors. Stability of commitments is a basic condition of the compatibility of wide moral freedom with the exigencies of social functioning. Like the other three media, commitments are not bound by a zero‐sum condition, but can be expanded, especially through charismatic movements.

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