Can we Quantify Value?

coberst

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Can we Quantify Value?

“When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to the state of science.”– Lord Kelvin

Lord Kelvin is making a value judgment. Has his value judgment advanced to the state of being a science? We do not have a physical standard for such a measurement so his judgment of this matter is unsatisfactory, at least in his valuation of judgment.

We have developed standards for quantifying certain physical parameters. We have standards for distance, weight, and time. The physical sciences utilize these standards for measuring things that have length, gravity, and duration. We have not developed similar quantifying standards for many other things that are of value to us. This may mean that the measurement of these values is unsatisfactory but again this is a value judgment, which is, as Lord Kelvin says, unsatisfactory. However unsatisfactory it does not mean that we cannot develop a disciplined, empirical, and systematic study of our values, that is to say we can develop a science of any domain of knowledge.

The quantification of qualities is useful especially in qualities that seldom change but, however unsatisfactory, it does not mean that we cannot develop a disciplined, empirical, and systematic study of our values.

Many of my teachers in grade school gave us report cards with number rather than letter grades. Since this is a quantification of value is it better than a letter grade? The quantification of an assessment of value seems to be an arbitrary assignment of the degree of value in which a judgment is held.

Can you quantify beauty, right, wrong, evil, good, sanity, aptness, inaptness, IQ (evidently we have developed a standard here), sophistication, democracy, freedom, etc?
 
Can we Quantify Value?

“When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to the state of science.”– Lord Kelvin

Lord Kelvin is making a value judgment. Has his value judgment advanced to the state of being a science? We do not have a physical standard for such a measurement so his judgment of this matter is unsatisfactory, at least in his valuation of judgment.

We have developed standards for quantifying certain physical parameters. We have standards for distance, weight, and time. The physical sciences utilize these standards for measuring things that have length, gravity, and duration. We have not developed similar quantifying standards for many other things that are of value to us. This may mean that the measurement of these values is unsatisfactory but again this is a value judgment, which is, as Lord Kelvin says, unsatisfactory. However unsatisfactory it does not mean that we cannot develop a disciplined, empirical, and systematic study of our values, that is to say we can develop a science of any domain of knowledge.

The quantification of qualities is useful especially in qualities that seldom change but, however unsatisfactory, it does not mean that we cannot develop a disciplined, empirical, and systematic study of our values.

Many of my teachers in grade school gave us report cards with number rather than letter grades. Since this is a quantification of value is it better than a letter grade? The quantification of an assessment of value seems to be an arbitrary assignment of the degree of value in which a judgment is held.

Can you quantify beauty, right, wrong, evil, good, sanity, aptness, inaptness, IQ (evidently we have developed a standard here), sophistication, democracy, freedom, etc?

The study of objective quality is the study of the relativity of vibrations or the expression of "being." Since "being" normally refers to existence as opposed to non-existence, the necessary scale of relativity is absent and consequently there can be no objective scale of quality.

The second problem is that the qualitative scale of "being" assumes a source of being itself. This is often a no no.

the bottom line is that even though I believe the quantitative scale of objective quality including human values measured by vibrational frequencies exist, there would be too much resistance for all but a small minority to contemplate and be open to experiencing it within themselves. As a result the defense of conflicting subjective values and the often opposing conceptions will rule the day leading to what you see in the world today.
 
Nick

Could you give me reference to a book that might explain this theory you write about?
 
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