An introduction to the theory of value : $b On the lines of Menger, Weiser, and Böhm-BawerkSmart, William
General
An introduction to the theory of value : $b On the lines of Menger, Weiser, and Böhm-Bawerk
Smart, William
Austrian school of economics; Value
But although it is almost impossible to use the term without
suggesting an inherent property,[2] Value in all its forms implies
a relation. The word seems to arise fundamentally in the relation of
Means to End, and will accordingly take various forms according to
the “end” conceived of. This end may be, directly, the Wellbeing of
man, whether conceived of as the ideal good of humanity, or the social
ideal current at the time, or the realisation of individual character,
or merely the gratification of individual desire. Or it may be some
mechanical or technical result, which has no direct reference to
personal wellbeing, or at least admits of being considered, for the
moment, as a merely objective or intermediate result. Corresponding to
these two classes of “ends,” we may divide the phenomena of value into
Subjective—or Personal—Value and Objective Value. The expressions are
not by any means perfect,[3] but they are the terms generally used by
the Austrian school, and they are perhaps the best we can get.
[2] “Value is the life-giving power of anything; cost, the quantity of
labour required to produce it; price, the quantity of labour which its
possessor will take in exchange for it. ‘Value’ signifies the strength,
or ‘availing’ of anything towards the sustaining of life, and is
always twofold; that is to say, primarily, intrinsic, and secondarily,
effectual. Intrinsic value is the absolute power of anything to
support life. A sheaf of wheat of given quality and weight has in it a
measurable power of sustaining the substance of the body; a cubic foot
of pure air, a fixed power of sustaining its warmth; and a cluster of
flowers of given beauty, a fixed power of enlivening or animating the
senses and heart. It does not in the least affect the intrinsic value
of the wheat, the air, or the flowers, that men refuse or despise
them. Used or not, their own power is in them, and that particular
power is in nothing else. But in order that this value of theirs may
become effectual, a certain state is necessary in the recipient of it.
The digesting, breathing, and perceiving functions must be perfect
in the human creature before the food, air, or flowers can become of
their full value to it. The production of effectual value, therefore,
always involves two needs: first, the production of a thing essentially
useful; then the production of the capacity to use it.”—_Munera
Pulveris_, i. § 12.
I quote this passage, partly on account of its suggestiveness, partly
to show how impossible it would be to reconcile any such definition of
value either with ordinary language or with economic science.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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