Defining value

There are several definitions of values. Different disciplines use the term value in different senses. Among social scientists economists are directly concerned with value. However, their concept of value has been changing along with changes in economic theory. Georgescu-Roegern (1968, 236) says that the history of economics is the struggle with the problem of value. In economics, the term value refers to several things such as “interests, pleasures, likes, preferences, duties, moral obligations, desires, wants, needs, aversions and affections, and many other modalities of selective orientation” (Albert, 1968, 283). From philosophical perspective, the notion of value can be traced back to the Platonic doctrine of the Idea of Good (James, 1958, 584-86). It is the “culmination of the Ideal world and as the principle which was to unify, systematize and organize all other ‘forms’.” At this stage it is useful to make a distinction between values and facts, and consciousness of value and consciousness of fact. While fact is a matter of what is, value is a matter of what ought to be. Sociologists, therefore, make a clear distinction between normative order of values and the world of facts which is merely described without any value judgment. Values are conferred on an object by an individual attitude towards it. Kant, who said that certain vitally essential beliefs cannot be scientifically justified, made a distinction between faith and knowledge, and supremacy of the practical over the theoretical reasoning. Recognizing the differences in approaches and practices, Marshall (1994) says:

In attitude research, values are ideas held by people about ethical behaviour or appropriate behaviour, what is right or wrong, desirable or despicable. In the same vein, philosophers treat values as part of ethics, aesthetics, and political philosophy.