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economics and sociology. A different understanding of a concept across disciplines<br />

potentially causes confusion and incorrectly creates the impression that values and<br />

valuation have different roles in different spheres of life. The role of values is not<br />

confined to questions of right and wrong, or of what is good and bad, or of aesthetics.<br />

Values and valuing are integral to all areas of human reasoning. As Rokeach explains:<br />

Persons are not detached or indifferent to the world; they do not stop<br />

with a sheerly factual view of their experience. Explicitly or implicitly<br />

they are continually regarding things as good or bad, pleasant or<br />

unpleasant, beautiful or ugly, appropriate or inappropriate, true or<br />

false, virtues or vices.<br />

Where do values come from?<br />

Rokeach, 1979, p. 16.<br />

There have been a number of theories regarding the origin of values. Values have been<br />

attributed to human feelings and emotions (Brentano, cited Jacquette, 2004; Damasio,<br />

1994; Seedhouse, 2005; Stevenson, 1944, cited Edel, 1953), desire (Ehrenfels, cited<br />

Rescher, 1982), society and culture (Kohlberg, 1975; Raz, 2003; Rokeach, 1979) and<br />

life experience (Hutcheon, 1972). Some theorists acknowledge a complex mix of a<br />

variety of sources (Hutcheon, 1972; Magendanz, 2003; Rokeach, 1979).<br />

Brentano saw the basis of valuation in emotions, in particular the contrast between<br />

favourable emotions (such as loving and liking) and negative emotions (such as hating<br />

and disliking) (cited Rescher, 1982, p. 51). As human beings, we all experience times<br />

when our emotions overtly influence the decisions we make, for example, in the form<br />

of sentimental attachment. It is easy to justify keeping an item which is effectively<br />

worthless, but for the sentimental, emotional attachment which reminds us of a happy<br />

time, or a loved one. The box of items in the loft which have no monetary value and<br />

serve no purpose (and are rarely even looked at) are not disposed of because of the<br />

emotional and sentimental value. Brentano, however, located value judgements in the<br />

objective realm, and thereby argued that value judgements could be assessed as being<br />

either correct or incorrect. To borrow the example from Baumgartner & Pasquerella<br />

(2004), two friends examine a striking piece of art work. One friend finds the painting<br />

breathtakingly beautiful. The other disagrees and experiences displeasure at viewing the<br />

25

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