Concepts of value: a multidisciplinary clarification

Abstract

Concepts of value are used in a wide variety of contexts and meanings in philosophy. Philosophers differ substantially in their meta-normative assumptions, as well as in the normative theories developed on the basis of these assumptions. A very important distinction among meta-normative theories is the choice of an objectivist or a subjectivist interpretation of "value", this distinction pervades all met normative theories regardless of their other assumptions. Many classifications of values contain the class of "intrinsic value"; however, there are significant differences between the respective contents of that class, although they generally refer to some kind of end value. In order to interpret the references to "value" in the Environment Act 1986, a clarification of the underlying philosophical assumptions appears necessary.