ABSTRACT
Observation of alien societies, and records of laws and customs in the same society at different times, plainly show that social values are diverse and even that they can conflict. In addition we know from direct experience that current social values in our own society are and have been questioned and that changes (some relatively slow, some quite quick) occur. We may personally be in doubt as to the validity of some of the social values that we were brought up to accept. Indeed one reason why social values, and their supporting secondary principles, are thought to be more fundamental than they really are, and hence why certain values are erroneously thought to be
fundamental, is that moral teaching in childhood has a very great influence on us all.
