Value theory - Definition and Overview

In philosophy, value theory, or axiology, concerns itself with the notion of goodness. It divides into ethics, concerning the morally good and aesthetics, concerning the artistically good, or the beautiful. To this one might add social goodness, and considerations relating to economics and political science.

In Economics. value theory is contented with a goodness defined by means of subjective ranking, but ethics and aesthetics commonly consider intrinsic goodness, and these lead to very different kinds of statements.

On the one hand one might claim say that one prefers Beethoven to Bon Jovi, which is a factual claim about what one prefers, but one might also say that it is true that Beethoven is in fact better than Bon Jovi, which seems to be a claim about the intrinsic value of their music.

There is more discussion about philosophy and goodness at the page about Goodness and value theory.