Value is interesting. People are always talking about "real value", but I doubt there is such a thing.
Say a specific loaf of bread is sold for $2. If you want the bread and have two dollars, you pay it.
But what if you were somewhere without food, but had lots of money, and about to die of starvation, what would it be worth to you then?
Moreso, if you buy one at the bakers, what would a second one be worth to you? You're not likely to eat it before it goes stale, so you won't pay two dollars for it. And a third one would even be a liability, just taking up space. But it's the same bread.
And some things are even more blatantly subjective. Take the (possibly) Jackson Pollock painting mentioned below. If it's not by Pollock, it can be sold for ten dollars if anybody likes it. If you can convince people it was painted by Pollock, suddenly it's worth fifty million dollars. And yet it's the same painting.
It also goes for non-monetary values. Say you have glass necklace which may have cost 99 cents. If you like it, you may wear it. If you don't like it, you may chuck it. But say it was worn for years by your late mother, and suddenly it may feel very valuable to you.
A used jacket may be junk. Except if it had belonged to Humphrey Bogart, wooo, eBay party.
Update: one might think one could cut through this gordian knot by saying: "all value is entirely subjective, except for objects which directly aid physical survival, such as food and shelter." But the bread example above addresses that, and also, why is survival so valuable to us? Because we fear death. But why do we? Over half of the planet's population believe either in an afterlife or in reincarnation, so why fear death at all?
Most of us fear pain too, but then there are people who will pay good money to have somebody in heels step on their nuts.
4 comments:
Boy, now that is a question or idea that we could talk on for days. I think of an auction, where each person bids higher than others. Does this change the objects value?
I went to Google and typed "define value" and wow, there are LOTS of definitions of the word.
As Charlie Brown says, "Good Grief".
Indeed. I think this subject, when examined to its utmost, cuts to the heart of our relationship with the world.
I'm not sure if the relationship is with the "world", but I think that I'd agree that it cuts to the heart of our relationshiop with the population of the planet.
With reference to the earth, I don't think that the word "value" really applies. I mean, can you give me an example of a value when referring to the world or planet? But when you speak of species or materials that reside on the planet, I'd agree with you.
You know this is a great question that you have posed and I've never really given the word "value" much thought. I use it quite often in every day use, but what does it really mean. It's like some abstract idea of what something is worth vs. something else with respect to a moment in time.
In this case, by "world" I don't mean planet, but everything we perceive.
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