This provocative book argues that people are naturally endowed with the ability to speak an articulate language and to form a culture. Language and cultural life require self-appraisal, and hence an evolution—through self-conflict—of desires into values. Nerlich demonstrates that this valuing is a natural process, one that underlies the morals of duty and obligation. He concludes that such valuing will be good only if it results in objective values that are authentic to the individual's nature and surrounding culture.