Morality is often a warped form of our desires. Our values, for the most part, are a generalization and categorization of our desires; another way of putting it is that our desires are specific cases of our values (for example, for life, freedom, comfort, and so on) though our desires are more fundamental. Many moral claims, then turn around and make specific claims based on the abstract values. This specific (desire) → abstract (value) → specific (moral claim) is one reason our moral claims often seem so incompatible with our actual desires. Please note that I am not saying this always, nor necessarily usually, happens.
If that is your only desire, maybe so. There have been plenty of societies that have been perfectly okay with robbing outgroups. But given all the other desires real people have, no. And “robbery is okay” would be a “moral claim”, not a value. “Acquiring property” would be the relevant generalized value.
Morality is often a warped form of our desires. Our values, for the most part, are a generalization and categorization of our desires; another way of putting it is that our desires are specific cases of our values (for example, for life, freedom, comfort, and so on) though our desires are more fundamental. Many moral claims, then turn around and make specific claims based on the abstract values. This specific (desire) → abstract (value) → specific (moral claim) is one reason our moral claims often seem so incompatible with our actual desires. Please note that I am not saying this always, nor necessarily usually, happens.
So, if I covet what you have, my values should include “robbery is OK”?
If that is your only desire, maybe so. There have been plenty of societies that have been perfectly okay with robbing outgroups. But given all the other desires real people have, no. And “robbery is okay” would be a “moral claim”, not a value. “Acquiring property” would be the relevant generalized value.
Maybe I misunderstand your definition of the term value.