Personal versus cultural Personal values exist in relation to
cultural values, either in agreement with or divergence from prevailing norms. A culture is a social system that shares a set of common values, in which such values permit social expectations and collective understandings of the good, beautiful and constructive. Without normative personal values, there would be no cultural reference against which to measure the virtue of individual values and so cultural identity would disintegrate.
Relative or absolute Relative values differ between people, and on a larger scale, between people of different cultures. On the other hand, there are theories of the existence of
absolute values, which can also be termed
noumenal values (and not to be confused with mathematical
absolute value). An absolute value can be described as
philosophically absolute and independent of individual and cultural views, as well as independent of whether it is known or apprehended or not.
Ludwig Wittgenstein was pessimistic about the idea that an elucidation would ever happen regarding the absolute values of actions or objects; "we can speak as much as we want about "life" and "
its meaning", and believe that what we say is important. But these are no more than expressions and can never be facts, resulting from a tendency of the mind and not the heart or the will".
Intrinsic or extrinsic Philosophic value may be split into
instrumental value and
intrinsic values. 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 properties. 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.
Summation 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 intrinsic value of an object may be used when putting that object in
value systems, which is a set of consistent values and measures.
Universal values S. H. Schwartz, along with a number of psychology colleagues, has carried out
empirical research investigating whether there are universal values, and what those values are. Schwartz defined 'values' as "conceptions of the desirable that influence the way people select action and evaluate events". He hypothesised that universal values would relate to three different types of human need: biological needs, social co-ordination needs, and needs related to the welfare and survival of groups
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.
Protected value A
protected value (also
sacred value) is one that an individual is unwilling to trade off no matter what the benefits of doing so may be. For example, some people may be unwilling to kill another person, even if it means saving many other individuals. Protected values tend to be "intrinsically good", and most people can in fact imagine a scenario when trading off their most precious values would be necessary. If such trade-offs happen between two competing protected values such as killing a person and defending your family they are called
tragic trade-offs. Protected values have been found to be play a role in protracted conflicts (e.g., the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict) because they can hinder businesslike (
utilitarian) negotiations. A series of experimental studies directed by
Scott Atran and Ángel Gómez among combatants on the
ISIS front line in Iraq and with ordinary citizens in Western Europe suggest that commitment to sacred values motivate the most "devoted actors" to make the costliest sacrifices, including willingness to fight and die, as well as a readiness to forsake close kin and comrades for those values if necessary. From the perspective of
utilitarianism, protected values are
biases when they prevent utility from being maximized across individuals. According to
Jonathan Baron and Mark Spranca, protected values arise from
norms as described in theories of
deontological ethics (the latter often being referred to in context with
Immanuel Kant). The protectedness implies that people are concerned with their participation in transactions rather than just the consequences of it.
Economic versus philosophic value Philosophical value is distinguished from
economic value, since it is independent from 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 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. In this light, everything can be said to have a "personal economic value" in contrast to its "societal economic value." == Personal values ==