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Axiology

Axiology is the philosophical study of values and how they come about in society. It seeks to understand the nature and origin of values and value judgments. Axiology is closely related to ethics, which studies goodness, and aesthetics, which studies beauty. Both ethics and aesthetics rely on concepts of worth, which axiology aims to define. Axiology also examines questions about what motivates actions based on different values like authority, respect, or morality. It analyzes the concept of value and how values have been defined historically from economic worth to broader areas of interest.

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Ramlat Mukhtar
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186 views4 pages

Axiology

Axiology is the philosophical study of values and how they come about in society. It seeks to understand the nature and origin of values and value judgments. Axiology is closely related to ethics, which studies goodness, and aesthetics, which studies beauty. Both ethics and aesthetics rely on concepts of worth, which axiology aims to define. Axiology also examines questions about what motivates actions based on different values like authority, respect, or morality. It analyzes the concept of value and how values have been defined historically from economic worth to broader areas of interest.

Uploaded by

Ramlat Mukhtar
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Introduction

Axiology is the study of values and how those values come about in a society.

Axiology seeks to understand the nature of values and value judgments. It is closely

related to two other realms of philosophy: ethics and aesthetics. All three branches

deal with worth. Ethics is concerned with goodness, trying to understand what good

is and what it means to be good. Aesthetics is concerned with beauty and harmony,

trying to understand beauty and what it means or how it is defined. Axiology is a

necessary component of both ethics and aesthetics, because one must use concepts

of worth to define “goodness” or “beauty,” and therefore one must understand what

is valuable and why. Understanding values helps us to determine motive.

When children ask questions like “why do we do this?” or “how come?” they are

asking axiological questions. They want to know what it is that motivates us to take

action or refrain from action. The parent says not to take a cookie from the jar. The

child wonders why taking a cookie from the jar is wrong and argues with the parent.

The parent often tires of trying to explain and simply replies, “Because I said so.”

The child will stop arguing if he values the established authority (or if he fears the

punishment of disobeying). On the other hand, the child may stop arguing simply

because he respects his parent. In this example, the value is either authority or

respect, depending on the values of the child. Axiology asks, “Where did these values

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come from? Can either of these values be called good? Is one better than another?

Why?”

Axiology

The term axiology comes from two Greek words, namely, axios which means worth

or value and logos which means study. Etymologically speaking, axiology means the

study of value or study of worth.

Traditionally however, scholars formally define axiology as the philosophical study

of values and how those values come about in society. In particular, axiology seeks

to understand the meaning, nature and origin of the notions of values and value

judgment. This explains why axiology is closely related to two other branches of

philosophy, namely ethics and aesthetics. In fact some scholars used the term either

as a collective term for ethics and aesthetics or as foundations for these two

branches of philosophy.

As we can see, axiology is a necessary component of both ethics and aesthetics in the

sense that one needs to use the concept of “worth” or “value” in defining and

understanding the notions of ‘good’ and ‘goodness’, and ‘beauty’. Through axiology,

one can meaningfully determine what is “valuable’ and why something can be said

to be valuable.

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For example, when person ask questions like “why do I need to obey social norms?”,

or “From what is morality derived, and what is it for in the context of society?”, then

that person is asking axiological questions. As we can see, that person wants to

know what it is that motivates us to take action or refrain from doing such action.

And if an authority explains fully to the person why he or she needs to obey social

rules, then the person may fully understand why he or she has to obey the rules. So,

in this example, the value is either authority or respect, but of course that depends

on how the person takes it.

Concept of Value

The term “value” originally meant the worth of something, chiefly in the economic

sense of exchange value, as in the work of the 18th-century political

economist Adam Smith. A broad extension of the meaning of value to wider areas of

philosophical interest occurred during the 19th century under the influence of a

variety of thinkers and schools.

Therefore, a value is “any object of any interest.” Later, he explored eight “realms” of

value: morality, religion, art, science, economics, politics, law, and custom.

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Conclusion

Axiology can be thought of as primarily concerned with classifying what things are good,

and how good they are. For instance, a traditional question of axiology concerns whether the

objects of value are subjective psychological states, or objective states of the world.

References

Flew, Antony (1979). "Axiology". A Dictionary of Philosophy Editorial Consultant, Antony


Flew. –. Macmillan.

Random House Unabridged Dictionary Entry on Axiology.

Lapie, Paul (1902).  Logique de la volonté. Paris: F. Alcan.

"Axiology and aesthetics - article". www.infotaste.com.

von Hartmann, Eduard (1908). Grundriss der Axiologie. Hermann Haacke.

Samuel L. Hart. Axiology—Theory of Values. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.

E. J. Dijksterhuis (1961) The Mechanization of the World Picture C. Dikshoorn translator, pages


75 & 75, via Internet Archive

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