Single Idea 18679

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / a. Nature of value]

Full Idea

If a certain object is valuable, then something other than its being valuable must make it so. ...One is always in principle entitled to an answer as to why it is good or bad.

Gist of Idea

Things are only valuable if something makes it valuable, and we can ask for the reason

Source

Francesco Orsi (Value Theory [2015], 5.2)

Book Reference

Orsi,Francesco: 'Value Theory' [Bloomsbury 2015], p.81


A Reaction

What Orsi calls the 'chemistry' of value. I am inclined to think that this is the key to a philosophical study of value. Without this assumption the values float free, and we drift into idealised waffle. Note that here he only refers to 'objects'.