Wlodek Rabinowicz

Philosophical Theories on Value



This philosophical research project, with participants from Uppsala and Lund, focuses on formal axiology, which studies the structural features of our value concepts. The following issues are of special interest: analysis of value, value typology, value bearers, value measurement, which will be dealt with in the sub-projects mentioned below: (1) Development of the concept of intrinsic value around the turn of the 20th century, with focus on the work of Franz Brentano and G. E. Moore. (2) Examination of the form of value analysis, according to which to be valuable is to be a fitting object of pro-attitudes (representatives: Brentano, Ewing, Scanlon). Thus, the pro-attitudes are called for not by the value of the object, as in Moore's theory, but by the features the value of the object supervenes. (3) Analysis of value-for: What does it mean for something to be good for someone, rather than just good? (4) Study of axiological particularism, i.e., a view according to which any feature that in one context makes an object valuable may lose this value-making capacity in another context. (5) Modelling of incomparability and vagueness in the area of value. Can one and the same value ordering exhibit both these kinds of phenomena? (6) Analysis of the assumption that values can be added. How plausible are the conditions that intrinsic value needs to satisfy in order to be additively measurable? (7) Preparation of an anthology of modern contributions to the debate on intrinsic value.
Final report

Digital scientific report in English is missing. Please contact rj@rj.se for information.

Grant administrator
Lunds universitet
Reference number
K2002-0013:1
Amount
SEK 2,400,000
Funding
Humanities and Social Sciences Donation
Subject
Other Humanities
Year
2002