Two Remarkably Different Lives. A Shared Lesson in How We Value.
What could a philosopher who devoted his life to understanding how human’s value or evaluate possibly have in common with Dolly Parton?
More than you might think.
Robert S. Hartman was a philosopher, scholar and pioneer in formal axiology, the study of value and how we make value judgments. Dolly Parton built an extraordinary life through music, storytelling, business and philanthropy. On the surface, their worlds could hardly look more different.
They did have one obvious connection. Hartman spent the later part of his career at the University of Tennessee and divided his time between Tennessee and Cuernavaca, Mexico. Dolly was born and raised in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, and that place and its people remained deeply connected to her life and work.
But geography is not really what makes the comparison interesting.
Human value is.
Hartman spent his life trying to understand how we value ourselves, other people, the work in front of us and the world around us. When we look at Dolly’s music, business, philanthropy and the way she used her influence, we can find some surprisingly accessible examples of those same questions playing out in a completely different world.
That unexpected connection is what Meredith Byrum Brown of Judgment Index calls The Hartman-Parton Paradigm.
First, What Is Axiology?
We talk about values all the time, but the word can become fuzzy pretty quickly.
Sometimes we mean morals or beliefs. Sometimes we mean the values a family tries to teach its children. In business, we might mean the list of words hanging on the wall in the conference room: Integrity. Service. Excellence.
Axiology goes deeper.
At Judgment Index, we often describe your values as those things that motivate, guide, drive and direct your everyday decisions. They influence what you notice, what matters to you, what you prioritize, how you solve problems and how you respond to the people and circumstances around you.
Axiology is the study of value and worth. Hartman’s formal axiology provided a logical and mathematical framework for examining the way we make value judgments. His work eventually led to an assessment that looks at patterns in how we value the world around us and our own Selves.
That may sound very philosophical. It is, but it is also extremely practical.
You are valuing things all day long. Every time you decide what deserves your attention, what needs to get done first, whom to trust, whether something is working, what is important, what can wait, or even how you feel about yourself, you are making value judgments.
And this is where Dolly gives us a wonderfully simple example.
A Coat Can Be Worth Very Little. Or It Can Be Priceless.
Think about Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors.
The story centers on a coat her mother made for her from simple materials. From a practical standpoint, the coat had a job to do: keep a child warm. But that was not what gave the coat its greatest value.
Its deeper value came from who made it, why she made it and what that coat meant to the little girl wearing it. It carried her mother’s love and gave Dolly a sense of pride and belonging that went far beyond the coat’s practical purpose.
That difference helps us understand three important dimensions in Hartman’s axiology.
Systemic: The Idea
The Systemic dimension deals with concepts, rules, structure and ideas.
We know what a coat is. We have a concept in our minds of what belongs in the category “coat” and what a coat is supposed to do. We can think about clothing, seasons, warmth and all of the information surrounding that object.
Extrinsic: The Function
The Extrinsic dimension deals with function, comparison, performance and usefulness in the real world.
Does the coat fit? Is it warm? Is it well made? What materials were used? How does it compare with another coat?
These are practical and important questions.
Intrinsic: The Unique
The Intrinsic dimension is different because it recognizes uniqueness.
This was not simply a coat. It was her coat, made by her mother, with a meaning that could never be adequately measured by the price of the fabric.
Now apply that same idea to people.
You have skills. You perform tasks. You fill roles. You may be a parent, spouse, executive, employee, coach, teacher, friend or caregiver.
All of those things matter, but none of them completely explains the value of you.
That recognition of the unique person is at the heart of Intrinsic value.
The Person, the Work and the Bigger Picture
Dolly’s Imagination Library gives us another useful way to understand how these dimensions can work together.
Dolly has spoken about her father’s inability to read and write as the personal inspiration behind her commitment to children’s literacy. She launched the Imagination Library in 1995 for children in her home county, and the program eventually expanded internationally, gifting millions of books to children each month.
Through an axiological lens, there are several things happening at once.
There is the person: the individual child whose life may be changed by developing a love of reading.
There is the work: choosing books, raising money, organizing distribution and actually getting those books into children’s hands.
And then there is the larger system: building something capable of reaching far beyond one child, one family or one community.
One simple way to think about that is:
Intrinsic helps us recognize the unique person and the meaning involved.
Extrinsic helps us consider what needs to be done and how effectively we can do it.
Systemic helps us step back and consider structure, possibilities and the larger impact.
The important point is not that one dimension is “better” than another. We need all three.
Caring about a person without taking action accomplishes very little. Getting things done without remembering the person can become mechanical. And working hard without stepping back to understand the larger picture can keep us incredibly busy without necessarily moving us in the best direction.
Good judgment requires us to see more than one kind of value.
Purpose Still Requires Work
There is a danger when we start talking about purpose, human value and making a difference. It can all begin to sound a little lofty.
Somebody still has to do the work.
Hartman’s life required enormous effort and reinvention. He fled fascism, rebuilt his life, established a professional career, taught, wrote and continued developing formal axiology. Dolly likewise spent decades writing, recording, touring, performing, building businesses and supporting causes that mattered to her.
That practical, get-it-done side matters. In Judgment Index language, it is a large part of the Extrinsic.
But there is a significant difference between doing work and allowing the work to completely define who you are.
That brings the conversation back to the Self.
Who Are You When We Take Away the Job Title?
Hartman placed tremendous emphasis on Self-awareness.
That means something deeper than simply knowing your strengths or being able to list what you are good at.
It means knowing your Self.
One of the dangers Hartman explored was becoming what we call outwardly led. In plain language, that happens when roles, expectations, rewards, pressure, approval or other people begin to have too much influence over how we define and value ourselves.
Our AXIOLOGY blog has explored this distinction before. Hartman’s work differentiates between a Self defined primarily by concepts, a Self defined heavily by roles and social responsibilities, and a deeper Intrinsic awareness of one’s unique Self.
That makes Dolly an interesting person to consider.
Her public image was unmistakable. The hair, the rhinestones, the clothes and the personality became part of one of the most recognizable identities in entertainment. But she also spoke openly about the importance of knowing who she was underneath all of it.
In a 2021 interview, she explained the importance of understanding your own nature, personality, strengths and weaknesses and protecting your identity rather than giving it away to someone else. She summed it up with the familiar line:
“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.”
That is an incredibly axiological idea.
Am I defining myself, or am I allowing the world around me to do it for me?
Hartman’s Four Hierarchies of Self
This is where the Hartman-Parton connection becomes especially useful.
Hartman described personal development through what we call his Four Hierarchies of Self. The progression begins with awareness and ultimately moves toward using what we have developed in service of something beyond ourselves.
1. Know Yourself
The first level is awareness and understanding.
What are your strengths? What are your tendencies? How do you evaluate situations? What matters to you? How do you respond when life does not go according to plan?
This requires more than understanding the jobs you perform or the roles you play. It asks you to look honestly inward and begin recognizing the unique person underneath all of those things.
You cannot make very intentional decisions about who you are becoming if you have very little awareness of who you are now.
2. Choose Yourself
Awareness leads to choice.
Once you begin to understand yourself, you can ask whether your priorities and decisions actually align with what matters to you.
Where do you need boundaries? Which expectations belong to you and which ones have simply been handed to you by someone else? Are you making intentional choices, or are you mostly responding to whatever is loudest, most urgent or most rewarding in the moment?
Choosing yourself does not mean choosing yourself over everyone else.
It means making conscious choices instead of being unconsciously directed by outside pressure.
3. Create Yourself
Knowing and choosing now move toward development.
What are you going to do with what you know about yourself?
Where is your potential? What are you building? What goals, plans and actions will help you turn your abilities into something purposeful?
This is where development becomes active. You begin taking what is possible and intentionally moving it toward what can actually be.
4. Give of Yourself
Hartman’s highest level moves beyond personal development alone.
What are you going to do with the person you have developed?
How are your abilities, experience, wisdom or resources contributing to something larger than yourself? Who benefits? What becomes better because you were here?
Hartman described this level in terms of contribution, legacy and using our gifts to make a meaningful difference in the world.
And this is where the Hartman-Parton connection really comes together.
Find Out Who You Are. Then Decide What to Do With It.
Dolly’s advice to “find out who you are and do it on purpose” fits remarkably well beside Hartman’s progression.
Find out who you are. Know Yourself.
Live intentionally rather than simply following outside expectations. Choose Yourself.
Develop what is uniquely yours and put it into action. Create Yourself.
Then take what you have developed and allow it to matter beyond you. Give of Yourself.
The point is not that Dolly Parton was teaching Hartman’s formal axiology or consciously working through his Four Hierarchies of Self. There is no reason to make that claim.
The interesting part is that Hartman’s framework gives us a way to understand ideas that become very recognizable when we see them lived out in the world.
That was the original appeal of the comparison. Hartman’s work can become dense very quickly, but a familiar story or person can give us another doorway into the concepts and make them easier to see in everyday life.
Try It Out
Axiology becomes much more interesting when it leaves the page and starts showing up in your own life.
Take Hartman’s four levels and ask yourself:
KNOW YOURSELF: How well do I understand what genuinely matters to me, and do my everyday decisions reflect it?
CHOOSE YOURSELF: How many of my choices are intentional, and how many are being driven primarily by roles, expectations, pressure or the need for approval?
CREATE YOURSELF: What am I actively developing? Where am I putting my time and energy, and what am I trying to become better at?
GIVE OF YOURSELF: Who or what becomes better because of what I am developing?
There is no single set of correct answers.
That is part of the point of axiology.
You are unique. Your experiences are unique. Your values have developed through a lifetime of experiences, choices and relationships. Understanding those values gives you greater awareness of why you make the decisions you make and, importantly, gives you an opportunity to make those decisions more intentionally.
The Final Takeaway
Axiology can sound complicated when you first hear the word. At its heart, though, it gives us a way to better understand something we are already doing every minute of every day: valuing.
We value people. We value work. We value ideas. We value our own Selves. Those values influence the choices we make, the actions we take and ultimately the lives we build.
Robert S. Hartman and Dolly Parton lived remarkably different lives. One approached questions of human value through rigorous philosophy and formal axiology. The other expressed many ideas about identity, purpose, people and contribution through music, business, philanthropy and the way she chose to live.
The point is not that they were doing the same work. They weren’t.
The connection is the question underneath it:
Do you know who you are, and what are you going to do with that knowledge?
Hartman’s work gives us a framework for exploring the answer. And maybe Dolly gave us a pretty memorable place to begin.
When you know who you are, everything changes.
With gratitude to Meredith Byrum Brown at Judgment Index, creator of the Hartman-Parton Paradigm, for beautifully weaving together the lives and ideas of Robert Hartman and Dolly Parton. This blog is adapted directly from her webinar and shares her insights, stories, and perspective.
Source: Dolly Parton’s comments on identity and self-awareness: Interview with Laura Regensdorf, Vanity Fair, July 29, 2021, “Dolly Parton’s Rhinestone-Studded World Now Has a Perfume to Match.”
Bring these ideas about human value into your workplace. Visit Judgment Index to learn how axiology can help you better understand your people, strengthen leadership and improve decision-making.
