The purpose of this discussion is to supply the main outlines of a
theory of value based upon analysis of the valuation-process from the
logical point of view. The general principle which we shall seek to
establish is that judgments of value, whether passed upon things or upon
modes of conduct, are essentially objective in import, and that they are
reached through a process of valuation which is essentially of the same
logical character as the judgment-process whereby conclusions of
physical fact are established--in a word, that the valuation-process,
issuing in the finished judgment of value expressive of the judging
person's definitive attitude toward the thing in question, is
constructive of an order of reality in the same sense as, in current
theories of knowledge, is the judgment of sense-perception and science.
Our method of procedure to this end will be that of assuming, and
adhering to as consistently as possible, the standpoint of the
individual in the process of deliberating upon an ethical or economic
problem (for, as we shall hold, all values properly so called are either
ethical or economic), and of ascertaining, as accurately as may be, the
meaning of the deliberative or evaluating process and of the various
factors in it as these are presented in the individual's apprehension.
It is in this sense that our procedure will be logical rather than
psychological. We shall be concerned to determine the _meaning_ of the
object of valuation as object, of the standard of value as standard, and
of the valued object as valued, in terms of the individual's own
apprehension of these, rather than to ascertain the nature and
conditions of his apprehensions of these considered as psychical
events. Our attention will throughout be directed to these factors or
phases of the valuation-process in their functional aspect of
determinants of the valuing agent's practical attitude, and never,
excepting for purposes of incidental illustration and in a very general
and tentative way, as events in consciousness mediated by more
"elementary" psychical processes. The results which we shall gain by
adhering to this method will enable us to see not merely that our
judgments of value are in function and meaning objective, but also that
our judgments of sense-perception and science are, as such, capable of
satisfactory interpretation only as being incidental to the attainment
and progressive reconstruction of judgments of value.
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