An Adaptive Family Values Conscience

The family as an institution has existed for the entire duration of human civilization, and in all but a few unfortunate exceptional cases, has served to support and enrich the lives of humans in countless generations. It is therefore just natural that supporting the family, and supporting values that support families, for example encouraging the life-long commitment of spouses, and the responsibilities of family members to one another, are held in high regard by most people across the world. Sadly, there have been many instances of what I believe to be maladaptive applications of 'family values', bringing the whole concept into disrepute. A friend of mine, who is a gay man, once told me he could not support 'family values' because it had been used as a cover for anti-gay policies by conservative politicians. Whilst this is sad, it also highlights how values need to be applied adaptively. This book is dedicated to ideas of how we can adaptively apply the ideals of family values to modern society.