Formulation of the claim
Living values differ from imposed standards.
Explanation
The text distinguishes between values as they are lived in everyday life and the rules formulated as an external obligation. This distinction reveals the gap between actual social experience and what is sought for it in terms of order and regulation.
In Arkoun’s thought, values are not understood as declared slogans or abstract normative formulas, but as a shifting practice within history and society. For this reason, looking at lived values opens the way to studying what drives real behavior, rather than settling for what official or moral discourses prescribe.
Its place in the book’s argument
This atom falls within Arkoun’s concern with examining the tension between the living meanings produced by societies and the closed normative systems imposed upon them. It is close to his theses that distinguish between levels of religious and social discourse, and call for reading human reality in light of the difference between what is proclaimed and what is lived.
Limits of the claim
This atom does not mean that imposed standards are ineffective, nor that they are entirely separate from lived values. The point is to highlight the difference between two levels in understanding values, not to issue a final judgment on either one.
Brief evidence
[1] In fact, a number of secret behaviors—unthought or impossible to think within strict orthodox standards—arise, are invented, and impose themselves on all levels of everyday life. The sorting out, inventorying, studying, and investigating of these behaviors and their meanings is something neglected and forbidden from the point of view of official religion. This leads either to a clear and decisive distinction between both levels