Axiology (from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, ''axia'': "value, worth"; and , ''
-logia
''-logy'' is a suffix in the English language, used with words originally adapted from Ancient Greek ending in ('). The earliest English examples were anglicizations of the French '' -logie'', which was in turn inherited from the Latin '' -logi ...
'': "study of") is the
philosophical
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
study of
value
Value or values may refer to:
Ethics and social
* Value (ethics) wherein said concept may be construed as treating actions themselves as abstract objects, associating value to them
** Values (Western philosophy) expands the notion of value beyo ...
. It includes questions about the nature and classification of values and about what kinds of things have value. It is intimately connected with various other philosophical fields that crucially depend on the notion of value, like
ethics
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...
,
aesthetics
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...
or
philosophy of religion
Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning ph ...
. It is also closely related to
value theory
In ethics and the social sciences, value theory involves various approaches that examine how, why, and to what degree humans value things and whether the object or subject of valuing is a person, idea, object, or anything else. Within philosophy, ...
and
meta-ethics
In metaphilosophy and ethics, meta-ethics is the study of the nature, scope, and meaning of moral judgment. It is one of the three branches of ethics generally studied by philosophers, the others being normative ethics (questions of how one ought ...
. The term was first used by Paul Lapie, in 1902, and
Eduard von Hartmann
Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, was a German philosopher, independent scholar and author of '' Philosophy of the Unconscious'' (1869). His notable ideas include the theory of the Unconscious and a pessimistic interpretation of the "best of al ...
, in 1908.
The distinction between ''intrinsic'' and ''extrinsic'' value is central to axiology. One conceptualization holds that something is ''intrinsically valuable'' if it is ''good in itself'' or ''good for its own sake''. It is usually held that intrinsic value ''depends'' on certain features of the valuable entity. For example, an experience may be said to be intrinsically valuable ''by virtue of'' being (because it is) pleasurable or beautiful or "true" (e.g., the ascertainment of a fact can be said to be valuable in itself). ''Extrinsic value'', by contrast, is ascribed to things that are valuable only as a ''means'' to something else. ''Substantive theories'' of value try to determine which entities have intrinsic value. ''Monist theories'' hold that there is only one type of intrinsic value. The paradigm example of monist theories is
hedonism
Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. ''Psychological'' or ''motivational hedonism'' claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decr ...
, the thesis that only pleasure has intrinsic value. ''Pluralist theories'', on the other hand, contend that there are various different types of intrinsic value, for example, virtue, knowledge, friendship, etc. Value pluralists face the problem of explaining whether or how the different types of value can be compared when making rational decisions. Some philosophers state that values ''do not exist'' on the most fundamental level of reality. One such view holds that a value statement about something just expresses the speaker's approval or disapproval of this thing. This position is opposed by ''realists about value''.
History
Between the 5th and 6th centuries BC, it was important in Greece to be knowledgeable if you were to be successful. Philosophers began to recognize that differences existed between the laws and morality of society.
Socrates
Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...
believed that knowledge had a vital connection to virtue, making morality and democracy closely intertwined.
Socrates
Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...
' student,
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
furthered the belief by establishing virtues which should be followed by all.
E. J. Dijksterhuis
Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis (28 October 1892, in Tilburg – 18 May 1965, in De Bilt) was a Dutch historian of science.
Career
Dijksterhuis studied mathematics at the University of Groningen from 1911 to 1918. His Ph.d. thesis was entitled "A Contrib ...
found that axiological
antithesis
Antithesis (Greek for "setting opposite", from "against" and "placing") is used in writing or speech either as a proposition that contrasts with or reverses some previously mentioned proposition, or when two opposites are introduced together f ...
characterized the
philosophy of ancient Greece:
With the fall of the government, values became individual, causing skeptic schools of thought to flourish, ultimately shaping an ontologically objective philosophy that is thought to have contributed to Christian Philosophy. During the medieval period,
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...
made the distinction between natural and supernatural (theological) virtues. This concept led philosophers to distinguish between judgments based on fact and judgments based on values, creating the division between science and philosophy.
[Arneson, P. (2009). Axiology. In S. Littlejohn, & K. Foss (Eds.), Encyclopedia of communication theory. (pp. 70-74). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.]
Intrinsic value
Traditionally, philosophers held that an entity has ''intrinsic value'' if it is ''good in itself'' or ''good for its own sake''. ''Intrinsic value'' is contrasted with ''extrinsic or instrumental value'', which is ascribed to things that are valuable only as a ''means'' to something else.
For example, tools like cars or microwaves are said to be extrinsically valuable by virtue of the function they perform, while the well-being they cause is intrinsically valuable, according to
hedonism
Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. ''Psychological'' or ''motivational hedonism'' claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decr ...
. The same entity can be valuable in different ways: some entities have both intrinsic and extrinsic values at the same time. Extrinsic values can form chains, in which one entity is extrinsically valuable because it is a means to another entity that is itself extrinsically valuable. It is commonly held that these chains must terminate somewhere and that the endpoint can only be intrinsically valuable.
The distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic values is important for understanding various disagreements within axiology. Different substantive theories of value often agree on whether something, for example knowledge, is valuable while disagreeing on whether the value in question is intrinsic or extrinsic.
The traditional conception of intrinsic value presented above has been criticized in contemporary philosophy on the grounds that it combines various distinct notions that are better discussed separately.
One such contrast is between ''intrinsic'' and ''final'' values.
On a more narrow conception, an ''intrinsic'' value is a value an entity has in virtue of its
intrinsic properties
In science and engineering, an intrinsic property is a property of a specified subject that exists itself or within the subject. An extrinsic property is not essential or inherent to the subject that is being characterized. For example, mass ...
. For example, assuming that the phenomenal aspect of a pleasant experience is an intrinsic property, we might say that the experience is intrinsically valuable because of this intrinsic property. An entity with ''final'' value, by contrast, is valuable for its own sake.
It is usually accepted that there is a conceptual difference between intrinsic and final values.
For example, the pleasure experience may be said to be intrinsically valuable on the one hand, and finally valuable on the other hand. But it has been disputed whether there are actual things where these value types can come apart. Proposed candidates for bearers of final non-intrinsic value include unique or rare items (e.g. a stamp) or historically significant items (e.g. the pen that Abraham Lincoln used to sign the Emancipation Proclamation).
''Being-rare'' and ''having-been-used-by-someone'' are ''extrinsic'' properties that may be responsible for their bearers having ''final'' value, i.e. being valuable for their own sake.
Some philosophers have questioned whether extrinsic values should be regarded as values at all rather than as mere indications of values. One reason for considering this idea is that adding or removing extrinsically valuable things does not affect the value of the whole if all intrinsically valuable things are kept constant.
For example, the
2011 Tōhoku earthquake had a negative extrinsic value because of all the damage it caused. But arguably, the world would not have been a better place if exactly the same damage had been caused without the earthquake.
Ontological status of values
In axiology, it is often important to distinguish between the entity that is valuable and the features in virtue of which it is valuable.
For example, an experience may be said to be valuable in virtue of being pleasurable. This distinction is particularly relevant for intrinsic values since it is commonly held that the intrinsic value of an entity
supervenes on its intrinsic features.
This means that the entity could not have a different intrinsic value unless it had different intrinsic features.
Substantive theories of value focus on the features in virtue of which something has intrinsic value.
Popular candidates for these features include pleasure, virtue and knowledge. Another question concerns the nature of the entities that are the bearers of value. The main approaches to this question can be divided into the
Kantian
Kantianism is the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). The term ''Kantianism'' or ''Kantian'' is sometimes also used to describe contemporary positions in philosophy of mind, ...
tradition, which considers concrete things like
persons
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...
to be the bearers of value, and the
Moorean tradition, which holds that only
states of affairs In philosophy, a state of affairs (german: Sachverhalt), also known as a situation, is a way the actual world must be in order to make some given ''proposition'' about the actual world true; in other words, a state of affairs is a ''truth-maker'', w ...
bear value.
This difference is important when determining whether a value is extrinsic or intrinsic to an entity. Some philosophers hold that objects like Napoleon's hat are valuable because of their relation to extraordinary persons. From a Kantian perspective, this value must be extrinsic since it is based on the extrinsic property of having been worn by an extraordinary person. But from a Moorean perspective, it can be intrinsic since it is born not by the hat but by a state of affairs involving both the hat and Napoleon.
The preceding discussion about the ontological categories of values and value-bearers assumes some form of
realism
Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to:
In the arts
*Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts
Arts movements related to realism include:
*Classical Realism
*Literary realism, a move ...
: that there actually are valuable things. But the difficulties in reaching
expert consensus in value-related fields like ethics, aesthetics or politics and considerations from
naturalism have led various philosophers to doubt this assumption.
The ensuing dispute between
cognitivists and
non-cognitivists is usually held on the level of value-statements or value-attitudes, either concerning all values or specifically concerning ethical values. Cognitivists assert that value-statements are ''truth-apt'', i.e. are either true or false, which is denied by non-cognitivists.
Most cognitivists are realists about values: they believe that values are part of reality.
Error theory
Moral nihilism (also known as ethical nihilism) is the meta-ethical view that nothing is morally right or wrong.
Moral nihilism is distinct from moral relativism, which allows for actions to be wrong relative to a particular culture or indivi ...
, as originally articulated by
J. L. Mackie
John Leslie Mackie (25 August 1917 – 12 December 1981) was an Australian philosopher. He made significant contributions to the philosophy of religion, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language, and is perhaps best known for his views on m ...
, is an exception. Error theorists hold that all value-statements are false, and thereby truth-apt, because the world lacks value-features that would be needed to make them true. Non-cognitivists, on the other hand, go one step further by denying that value-statements are truth-apt. This position involves the difficulty of explaining how value-statements can be meaningful despite lacking a truth value. This challenge can be met in different ways.
Emotivists, following
A. J. Ayer
Sir Alfred Jules "Freddie" Ayer (; 29 October 1910 – 27 June 1989), usually cited as A. J. Ayer, was an English philosopher known for his promotion of logical positivism, particularly in his books '' Language, Truth, and Logic'' (1936) ...
, state that value-statements only express the emotions of the speaker and are intended to influence the actions of the listener.
Prescriptivism, as developed by
R. M. Hare
Richard Mervyn Hare (21 March 1919 – 29 January 2002), usually cited as R. M. Hare, was a British moral philosopher who held the post of White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford from 1966 until 1983. He subseque ...
, interprets value-statements as imperatives or commands.
Simon Blackburn
Simon Blackburn (born 12 July 1944) is an English academic philosopher known for his work in metaethics, where he defends quasi-realism, and in the philosophy of language; more recently, he has gained a large general audience from his effort ...
's
quasi-realism Quasi-realism is the meta-ethical view which claims that:
# Ethical sentences do not express propositions.
# Instead, ethical sentences project emotional attitudes as though they were real properties.
This makes quasi-realism a form of non-cogn ...
states that value statements project emotional attitudes as though they were real properties.
Monism and pluralism
Substantive theories of value try to determine which entities have ''intrinsic value''. A traditional dispute in this field is between ''monist'' and ''pluralist'' theories. According to Chris Heathwood, monism and pluralism can be distinguished according to an evaluation of what is good in people and the concept of "value simpliciter" in terms of intrinsic value.
Monist theories hold that there is only one type of intrinsic value. The paradigm example of monist theories is
hedonism
Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. ''Psychological'' or ''motivational hedonism'' claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decr ...
, the thesis that only pleasure has intrinsic value. Pluralist theories, on the other hand, contend that there are various different types of intrinsic value.
They maintain that these types of intrinsic values cannot be reduced to a single feature of an act or entity.
W. D. Ross
Sir William David Ross (15 April 1877 – 5 May 1971), known as David Ross but usually cited as W. D. Ross, was a Scottish Aristotelian philosopher, translator, WWI veteran, civil servant, and university administrator. His best-known wor ...
, for example, holds that pleasure is only one type of intrinsic value besides other types, like knowledge.
It is important to keep in mind that this disagreement only concerns ''intrinsic'' value, not value ''at large''.
So hedonists may be happy to concede that knowledge is valuable, but only extrinsically so, given that knowledge can be helpful in causing pleasure and avoiding pain.
Various arguments have been suggested in the monism-pluralism-dispute. Common-sense seems to favor value pluralism: values are ascribed to a wide range of different things like happiness, liberty, friendship, etc. without any obvious common feature underlying these values.
One way to defend value monism is to cast doubt on the reliability of common-sense for technical matters like the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic value.
This strategy is pursued by
J. J. C. Smart
John Jamieson Carswell Smart (16 September 1920 – 6 October 2012), was a British-Australian philosopher and was appointed as an Emeritus Professor by the Australian National University. He worked in the fields of metaphysics, philosophy of sc ...
, who holds that there is a psychological bias to mistake stable extrinsic values for intrinsic values.
Value pluralists have often attempted to provide exhaustive lists of all value types, but different theorists have suggested very different lists. These lists seem to constitute arbitrary selections unless a clear criterion could be provided why all and only these items are included. But if a criterion was to be found then such a theory would no longer be pluralistic. This dilemma suggests that pluralism is inadequate as an explanation.
One issue closely related to the monism-pluralism-debate is the problem of
incommensurability: the question of whether there are incommensurable values. Two values are ''incommensurable'' if there is no fact as to whether one is better than or as good as the other: there is ''no common value scale'' according to which they could be compared.
According to
Joseph Raz
Joseph Raz (; he, יוסף רז; born Zaltsman; 21 March 19392 May 2022) was an Israeli legal, moral and political philosopher. He was an advocate of legal positivism and is known for his conception of perfectionist liberalism. Raz spent mos ...
, career choices between very different paths, for example, whether to become a lawyer or a clarinetist, are cases where incommensurable values are involved.
Value pluralists often assert that values belonging to different types are incommensurable with each other. Value monists, by contrast, usually deny that there are incommensurable values. This question is particularly relevant for ethics. If different options available to the agent embody incommensurable values then there seems to be no rational way to determine what ought to be done since there is no matter of fact as to which option is better.
Widespread incommensurability would threaten to undermine the practical relevance of ethics and rational choice.
Other concepts and distinctions
Many evaluative terms are found in everyday language, often with various different meanings.
It is important for philosophers to distinguish these different meanings in order to avoid misunderstandings. One such distinction is between a ''predicative'' and an ''attributive'' sense of good and bad.
In the ''attributive'' sense, an entity is good in relation to a certain kind.
For example, a person with a clear voice may be a good singer or a knife with a blunt edge may be a bad knife. But this still leaves it open whether the entity in question is good or bad in an ''unqualified'' or ''predicative'' sense. For example, a person may be a bad assassin but being bad as an assassin is not bad in a predicative sense. Axiology is usually interested in the predicative sense of goodness.
But some philosophers deny that such a sense exists and therefore hold that all value is relative to a kind.
A second important distinction is that between ''being good for a person'' and ''being good for the world''.
''Being good for a person'' or ''prudential value'' has to do with this person's welfare or
well-being
Well-being, or wellbeing, also known as wellness, prudential value or quality of life, refers to what is intrinsically valuable relative ''to'' someone. So the well-being of a person is what is ultimately good ''for'' this person, what is in th ...
.
But what is good for one person may be bad for another person. For example, having a dry summer may be good for the hiker in virtue of the pleasant hiking conditions, but bad for the farmer, whose crop is dying because of a lack of water. In such cases, the question arises as to what is ''good for the world'' or ''good simpliciter''.
Utilitarians
In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals.
Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charact ...
can solve this problem by defining the ''good for the world'' as the sum of the ''good for each persons''.
Philosophers often distinguish between ''evaluative concepts'' (like ''good'' or ''bad'') and ''deontic concepts'' (like ''right'', ''fitting'' or ''ought'').
The former belong to axiology proper and express what has worth or value while the latter belong to ethics (and related fields) and express what one ought to do. Philosophers have tried to provide a unified account of these two fields since they seem to be intimately related.
Consequentialists
In ethical philosophy, consequentialism is a class of normative ethics, normative, Teleology, teleological ethical theories that holds that the wikt:consequence, consequences of one's Action (philosophy), conduct are the ultimate basis for judgm ...
see evaluative concepts as fundamental and define deontic concepts in terms of evaluative concepts. ''Fitting-attitude theories'', on the other hand, try to reduce evaluative concepts to deontic concepts.
''Consequentialism'' is an ethical theory that holds that, given a certain set of possible actions, we ought to perform the action that has the best overall consequences. So what we ought to do is defined in evaluative terms: whatever leads to the consequences with the highest value. ''Fitting-attitude theories'' are axiological theories that define the value of something in terms of the attitude that would be ''fitting'' to have towards this thing,
for example, that it would be good to find a cure for cancer because this would be a fitting object of desire. These accounts build on the deontic notion that some of our attitudes towards the world are ''fitting'' or ''right'' to define what is ''good''.
See also
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References
Further reading
* 384 pages.
* 100 pages.
* 140 pages.
* Marías, Julián (1967). ''History of Philosophy''. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
External links
*
Cultura: International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and AxiologyAxiology.org.ukAxiologyat
PhilPapers
PhilPapers is an interactive academic database of journal articles in philosophy. It is maintained by the Centre for Digital Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario, and as of 2022, it has "394,867 registered users, including the majorit ...
{{Philosophy topics
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