I just want to get an idea of what the HN community thinks about this. Personally I think value <i>is</i> subjective. I would also add that I believe reality is also subjective due to the personal nature and perspective of the individual.
Imagine that you have two people with the exact same amount of money. One hasn't had any water in 3 days, the other just drank a gallon of water.<p>Do you think they'd place different values on a glass of water? Do you think they'd interpret the glass of water differently?
> reality is also subjective<p>This is a big leap. While I agree that value is subjective, that doesn't make reality subjective. Reality is the medium through which our subjective experiences are negotiated. We are all more or less seeing and hearing the same events. Of course our interpretation of them can vary drastically, but that doesn't mean that what "actually" happened is different.<p>Can a human fully get at the "objective" truth? Probably not, but we can negotiate pretty close to it, and the more we all hammer away at the same thing to perceive what is going on with it, the more likely it is that our generalized observations are pretty close to what is "actually" happening.<p>Edit:<p>You can view our perceptions of reality as an evolutionary process. Those of us who have interpretations of reality that most closely align with "what is really happening" will probably survive more over the long run. There are, of course, exceptions, it seems like humans have defense mechanisms in memory that help survival, so a perfectly clear picture of reality can, sometimes, be detrimental to human health (especially mental health).
No. Breathing is not "subjective". Shelter and food are not subjective values. Freedom is a necessity of living as a proper human being. It all relates to your standard of value. For humans, life under the guidance of reason, or range-of-the-moment emotionalism? for grass, growing with sun, water, and nutrients; or death in darkness, drought, or lack of CO2? etc.<p>As for reality being subjective -- do you look before crossing the road? when was the last time you jumped naked from the top of a skyscraper? would you enjoy a plate of plutonium for breakfast?
Reality is objective. You can't pray cancer away and denying global warming doesn't make it disappear. Reality goes on with or without your consent. To some extent, physical actions can affect your environment.<p>The millenial narrative tells you that, eventually, reality will align with our best wishes. False. We must be ready to accept and deal with truths of any kind, no matter how ugly they are.
I think value is totally subjective. Mises had this brilliant way to think about value in his book Human Action. Where you can use ranking or ordering of things to measure value.<p>On reality, I tend to think of it as some form of state machine, but this could very well be a leaky abstraction. We all start with a different set of inputs and experiences. How we view what we each call reality is largely shaped by these.
If you're thinking about accounting value, then no, value is not subjective. On the other hand, in marketing, value is something perceived by the customers, thus subjective.<p>Read more: <a href="http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/value.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/value.html</a>
The dictionary definition of value is that it is subjective, isn't it? I believe it is. Worth, on the other hand, is objective. Value happens to be of Latin origin and worth of Germanic.