  Let us begin with the first part of the question. We will first approach it by using a mode of argument typical of phenomenology. Many existentialists insist that the ways in which a human consciousness “intends” the world (that is, imposes a certain order and regularity in external phenomena) is intrinsically dependent on the values the person has set for herself. A mountain climber views a mountain in a way radically different from an intellectual who has devoted his or her life to books. The difference in their perspectives relates to the deep projects of selves that distinguish these two persons. In other words, behind every perception there is a value influencing the perception in advance and thus ultimately determining its precise content. On a deeper, ontological level, the experience that there is something at all, the experience of being, cannot be conceived if there is not a desire for it (an “ontological exigency” says Marcel). The very capacity of human beings to conceive something in the world at all is premised on their capacity to posit values (Sartre 1943a; Marcel 1960a, for the religious perspective).