In ethics,
value is a property of
objectsIn philosophy, an object is a thing, an entity, or a being. This may be taken in several senses. In its weakest sense, the word "object" is the most all-purpose of nouns, and can replace a noun in any sentence at all...
, including physical objects as well as
abstract objectAn abstract object is an object which does not exist at any particular time or place, but rather exists as a type of thing . In philosophy, an important distinction is whether an object is considered abstract or concrete. Abstract objects are sometimes called abstracta An abstract object is an...
s (e.g.
actionsIn philosophy, action has developed into a sub-field called philosophy of action. Action is what an agent can do.For example, throwing a ball is an instance of action; it involves an intention, a goal, and a bodily movement guided by the agent...
), representing their degree of
importance.
Ethic value denotes something's degree of importance, with the aim of determining what action or life is best to do or live, or at least attempt to describe the value of different actions. It may be described as treating actions themselves as abstract objects, putting value to them. It deals with right conduct and good life, in the sense that a highly, or at least relatively highly, valuable action or may be regarded as ethic "good" (
adjectiveIn grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent...
sense), and an action of low, or at least relatively low, value may be regarded as "bad".
What makes an action valuable may in turn depend on the ethic values of the objects it increases, decreases or alters. An object with "ethic value" may be termed an "ethic or philosophic good" (
nounIn linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
sense).
Study
- Ethical value may be regarded as a study under ethics
Ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality, such as what the fundamental semantic, ontological, and epistemic nature of ethics or morality is , how moral values should be determined , how a moral outcome can be achieved in specific situations , how moral...
, which, in turn, may be grouped as philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
. Similar to that ethics may be regarded as a subfield of philosophy, ethical value may be regarded as a subgroup of the more broad (and vague) philosophic value. Ethical value denotes something's degree of importance, with the aim of determining what action or life is best to do, or at least attempt to describe the value of different actions. It may be described as treating actions themselves as abstract objects, putting value to them. It deals with right conduct and good life, in the sense that a highly, or at least relatively highly, valuable action or may be regarded as good, and an action of low, or at least relatively low, value may be regarded as bad.
- The study of ethical value is also included in value theory
Value theory encompasses a range of approaches to understanding how, why, and to what degree humans should value things, whether the thing is a person, idea, object, or anything else. This investigation began in ancient philosophy, where it is called axiology or ethics. Early philosophical...
.
Similar concepts
ethical value is sometimes used synonymously with goodness. However, goodness has many other meanings as well, and may be regarded as more ambiguous.
Absolute and relative
There is a distinction between
relative (or personal or cultural value) and
absolute (or noumenal) value (not to be confused with mathematical
absolute valueIn mathematics, the absolute value of a real number is its numerical value without regard to its sign. So, for example, 3 is the absolute value of both 3 and −3.The absolute value of a number is denoted by ....
). Relative value is subjective, depending on individual and cultural views, and is therefore synonymous with personal and cultural value. Absolute value, on the other hand, is
philosophically absoluteThe Absolute is the concept of an unconditional reality which transcends limited, conditional, everyday existence. It is often used as an alternate term for a "God" or "the Divine", especially, but by no means exclusively, by those who feel that the term "God" lends itself too easily to...
and independent of individual and cultural views, as well as independent on whether it discovered or not what object has it.
Relative value may be regarded as an experience by
subjectsIn philosophy, a subject is a being which has subjective experiences, subjective consciousness or a relationship with another entity . A subject is an observer and an object is a thing observed...
of the absolute value. Relative value varies with individual and culture while absolute value, on the other hand, is the same, regardless of the experience of individuals.
Relative value may be explained as an assumption upon which implementation can be extrapolated. Absolute value could possibly be implemented if it was known, but cannot be assumed, but is what it is.
Intrinsic and extrinsic
Philosophic value may be split into
instrumental valueInstrumental value is the value of objects, both physical objects and abstract objects, not as ends-in-themselves but a means of achieving something else...
and
intrinsic valueIntrinsic value is an ethical and philosophic property. It is the ethical or philosophic value that an object has "in itself" or "for its own sake", as an intrinsic property...
s. An instrumental value is worth having as a means towards getting something else that is good (e.g., a radio is instrumentally good in order to hear music). An intrinsically valuable thing is worth for itself, not as a means to something else. It is giving value
intrinsic and extrinsic propertiesAn intrinsic property is a property that an object or a thing has of itself, independently of other things, including its context. An extrinsic property is a property that depends on a thing's relationship with other things...
.
An
ethic good with
instrumental value may be termed an ethic mean, and an
ethic good with
intrinsic value may be termed an end-in-itself. An object may be both a mean and end-in-itself.
Whole value
Intrinsic and instrumental goods are not mutually exclusive categories. Some objects are both good in themselves, and also good for getting other objects that are good. "Understanding science" may be such a good, being both worthwhile in and of itself, and as a means of achieving other goods. In these cases, the sum of instrumental (specifically the all instrumental value) and instrinsic value of an object may be regarded as the
whole value of the object.
Intensity
The
intensity of philosophic value is the degree it is generated or carried out, and may be regarded as the prevalence of the good, the object having the value.
It should not be confused with the amount of value per object, although the latter may vary too, e.g. because of instrumental value conditionality. For instance, for a Waffleist, accepting waffle eating as of end-in-itself, the intensity may be the speed that waffles are eaten, and is zero when no waffles are eaten, e.g. if no waffles are present. Still, each waffle that had been present would still have value, no matter if it was being eaten or not, independent on intensity.
Instrumental value conditionality in this case could be exampled by every waffle not present, making them less valued by being far away rather than easily accessible.
In many life stances it is the product of value and intensity that is ultimately desirable, i.e. not only to generate value, but to generate it in large degree.
MaximizingIn ethics, maximization or optimization is the concept of always doing the act that yields the most good, rather than regarding any good action as fully sufficient or acceptable...
lifestances have the highest possible intensity as an imperative.
Homology in physics
When comparing to the homologous measure in physics, then
intensity in physicsIn physics, intensity is a measure of the time-averaged energy flux. The word "intensity" here is not synonymous with "strength", "amplitude", or "level", as it sometimes is in colloquial speech...
may not be the best example, but may better be described as its area. In this sense,
power in physicsIn physics, power is the rate at which work is performed or energy is converted. It is an energy per unit of time. As a rate of change of work done or the energy of a subsystem, power iswhere P is power, W is work and t is time....
may be compared to the amount of value per object, and physical intensity the product of value per object and ethic intensity. If there is no physical area, then no energy is generated, regardless of physical power. In the same way, if there is no ethic intensity, then no total value is generated, regardless of value per object.
Duration
Philosophic or ethic value duration is the
timeTime is a component of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects...
that an object exists, or more specifically, has any intensity.
It is contrasted with chain of events duration, which is the time it takes for a chain of events to reach its terminal event, in this case the object with intrinsic value.
The
chain of events duration may be significantly longer than the
value duration, especially for objects with long term instrumental value. In the intervening time, the value of the object is converted into the value of the intervening objects in the
chain of events.
Average and instantaneous value
With time in mind, there is a distinction between
average ethic or philosophic value and
instantaneous ethic or philosophic value.
- The average ethic or philosophic value is the average
In mathematics, an average, central tendency of a data set is a measure of the "middle" or "expected" value of the data set. There are many different descriptive statistics that can be chosen as a measurement of the central tendency of the data items. These include arithmetic mean, the median and...
of the ethic or philosophic value of an object during a certain amount of time. If not else specified it is assumed to be the value duration of the object in mind. It can, however, also be the chain of events duration or other specified amount of time.
- The instantaneous ethic or philosophic value is the ethic or philosophic value of an object at a certain point of time. If may be a present, past or future point of time.
Total value
The total ethic or philosophic value of an object is the
productIn the a mathematics, a product is the result of multiplying, or an expression that identifies factors to be multiplied. The order in real or complex numbers are multiplied has no bearing on the product; this is known as the commutative law of multiplication...
of its average value, average intensity and
value duration. It may be either absolute or relative or both.
Any decrease in the whole value, intensity or duration of an object decreases its total value and vice versa. For instance, for a Waffleist, regarding waffles as of ends-in-themselves, it still doesn't generate any total value if there are no waffles, no intensity, no matter how much average value a waffle has.
Total whole value
The
total value of the
whole value of an object is its
total whole value.
Alternatively described, it is the sum of the total intrinsic value and total instrumental value.
It may be either
relative or
absolute, or both.
Economic and philosophic value
Philosophical value is distinguished from economic value, since it is independent on some other desired condition or commodity. The economic value of an object may rise when the exchangeable desired condition or commodity, e.g. money, become high in supply, and vice versa when supply of money becomes low.
Nevertheless, economic value may be regarded as a result of philosophical value. In the
subjective theory of valueThe subjective theory of value is an economic theory of value that holds that to possess value an object must be both useful and scarce, with the extent of that value dependent upon the ability of an object to satisfy the wants of any given individual. "Value" here is distinct from exchange value...
, the personal philosophic value a person puts in possessing something is reflected in what economic value this person puts on it. The limit where a person considers to purchase something may be regarded as the point where the
personal philosophic value of possessing something exceeds the personal philosophic value of what is given up in exchange for it, e.g. money.
Equality
Philosophic or ethic value equality is the concept of two objects having the same philosophic value. It can be of different types, depending of the value:
- Philosophic or ethic intrinsic value equality, where the objects have the same intrinsic value
- Philosophic or ethic instrumental value equality, where the objects have the same instrumental value
- Philosophic or ethic whole value equality, where the objects have the same whole value
- Philosophic or ethic total value equality, where the objects have the same total value
Value system
A
value system is a set of consistent ethic values and measures used for the purpose of ethical or ideological
integrityIntegrity as a concept has to do with perceived consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcome. People use integrity as a holistic concept, judging the integrity of systems in terms of those systems' ability to achieve their own goals...
. A well defined
value system is a moral code.
Positive and negative value
There may be a distinction between positive and negative philosophic or ethic value. While positive ethic value generally is something that is purposed to pursue as much as possible, the negative value, on the other hand, is something that is pursued to avoid or minimize.
Negative value may be both intrinsic negative value and/or instrumental negative value.
Human negative value
Some regard humans as having negative value. For instance, the
Voluntary Human Extinction MovementThe Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, or VHEMT , is a movement which calls for the voluntary self-extinction of the human species.VHEMT was founded by Les U...
holds that the world would be better without humankind and the values it brings. On a smaller scale, it may be thought of as a reason of
suicideSuicide is the intentional killing of one's self. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"...
.
See also
- Importance
- Meaning of life
The meaning of life constitutes a philosophical question concerning the purpose and significance of human existence or biological life in general...
- Purpose in life
- Intrinsic value (ethics)
Intrinsic value is an ethical and philosophic property. It is the ethical or philosophic value that an object has "in itself" or "for its own sake", as an intrinsic property...
- Instrumental value
Instrumental value is the value of objects, both physical objects and abstract objects, not as ends-in-themselves but a means of achieving something else...