VALUE SIMPLICITER
Today I will be defining value simpliciter. That would be value without any shades or variations. The pure and unmodified version of value. (clean up simpliciter)
The concept of value is used in a variety of ways in life. My definition works for all of them. Some common and impactful ways are:
- Numerical values for math
- Financial value
- Personal values
- Sentimental value
- Other such as: “I value my friends” or “That painting is of no value to me”
TO AUDIENCE: Please write in chat what you believe the criteria or definition is of value without any shades.
Let’s see how close you were to what I have put together. I imagine it will have something to do with utility, use, or effectiveness. In the end it always breaks down to effect.
VALUE
Value – ability to impart effect
In the context of the definition I just gave, impart effect, that does not mean ultimate effect, it means proximal effect. (clean up ultimate vs proximal)
Now to break down some of the ideas in that definition.
Ability – A power that is possessed by something to produce a specific effect.
Impart – bestow a quality.
- In other words; give, transmit, convey, or pass on
Effect – a change which is a result or consequence of an action or other cause.
Effect is a state of existence. Much like cause is a state of existence. When people think of cause, they may think of just one thing as it sounds like just one thing. Though it may be bundle of causes or factors. Let’s look at an example.
A billiard or pool table with the white cue ball in place to strike a recently racked set of balls. When you strike that cue ball with the pool stick, that ball is now in motion and will strike the set of balls. When that cue ball hits the set of balls, those balls will move in a variety of directions and bounce around the walls of the pool table until they come to rest.
- In that situation, you could look at the cue ball as the cause to the balls moving around or you could look at the cue ball and the set of balls as a set of causes.
- When the cue ball is introduced to the set of balls, you get an affect. Affect being that changing state.
- When the balls are at rest at the end of that, you have the end of the event. The effect.
Value transmitter – Value can be transmitted, given, or imparted from the point of view of the thing that produces the value. That would be a value source. For example, the sun which produces sunlight.
- Transmit is from two Latin terms that mean across and send.
Value receiver – Value can be received or gained from the point of view of a thing that can have value imparted upon it. For example a plant that receives value from sunlight.
- Receive is from two Latin terms that mean back and take.
Now I’m going to talk about positive and negative in relation to value.
Positive –
The term positive comes from the idea of posit or placed. You can have something that has been placed or you can do the action of placing. It is just a difference in temporal forms or tense.
Positive Apples – Assume we have a table. A table with no things on it — nothing. Then we place an apple on that table. We have posited or placed the apple. There is an apple placed on the table now. I’ve now used both forms of posit in relation to that table and the apple.
We now can say there is a positive amount of apples on the apple instead of zero apples.
You can have positive be in terms of “states of existence” such as quantity or in terms of a process.
Negative –
Negative is a bit of a more complicated of a concept than positive.
The term negative comes from a Latin word that means ‘deny’. The English word negate comes from a Latin word that means denied.
Negatives much like positives can be thought of as “states of existence” or processes. You can go in a negative direction in reference to a positive location. That would be the process kind.
When it comes to negative there is an artificial kind of and a natural kind. Artificial kinds are kinds that are created by things with minds.
Now must invoke the idea of zero. You may think of zero as a simple idea, but at one time in history, it was a brand new invention.
Zero is a baseline, a floor, a place to start, a threshold. A negative state would be a location before, behind, below, or under a zero. Being at a negative location however in the physical world cannot truly be done, unless that positive location is purely an artificial construction.
Negative Apples – If we are talking about apples on a table, we cannot have a negative amount of apples on the table. Not in a physical sense at least. We can subtract apples that are on the table and that would mean that the quantity of apples on the table is going in the negative direction.
There is a great concept to use about this time called N.O.I.R. N.O.I.R. is an acronym for Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, Ratio. It is a data science kind of idea that talks about measurement types.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_measurement
Data Analysis 1: What is Data? – Computerphile
Nominal is the simplest of measurements. Just an identification of something by name. Such as a number on a footballers uniform.
Ordinal is about measuring things purely by order. So assume we can order something such as that one elephant is larger than another one next to it. Or you could put your favorite movies in some kind of order for someone.
Interval is about measuring things with set intervals. An example of this is a millimeter or inch for intervals of length. These are set intervals or spaces or amounts.
Ratio is where you have real zero instead of an artificial zero.
Zero has been used in a lot of places where the physical world is measured, temperature being the most relatable to most people. The idea of temperature at its core is about movement of particles.
Fahrenheit’s zero is artificial. Kelvin’s absolute zero is natural.
Quick note: When a person speaks about negative emotions they are talking about from a baseline emotional state or emotions that have impacted a positive emotional state.
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Applications of Value
About things and value: Things are an arrangement of properties. That would be form. Forms interface and interact with various things, including scenarios and the objects within them. That would be fit. The fit up between the form and other forms produces functions, or effects.
Bacteria vs Anti-bacterial Cleaning Agents
If bacteria is exposed to anti-bacterials that were to damage or kill it, it would have lost value as itself. It would be no more as a bacteria. It would not be able to impart effects to anything, including itself.
A bacteria is a living thing and does not have a mind. It can lose value.
Plant and Sunlight
A plant gains value (ability to impart effect) from sunlight. The sunlight is a transmitter of value (ability to impart effect) and the plant is a receiver of that value (ability to impart effect).
A plant is a living thing and does not have a mind. It can gain value.
Car vs Lake
Is it of positive or negative value for a car to be submerged into a lake? I would say negative value, as it now has a negative amount of ability to impart effect as a car. Its arrangement of parts have been modified in such a way to impart a negative ability to impart effect as it was designed and manufactured to have.
A car is a complex object. It is not alive. It does not have a mind.
The Cardboard Box
A cardboard box is a simple object. It does not have a mind. It also is not alive.
A cardboard box is an arrangement of properties. The arrangement of properties has the ability to impart effects.
A cardboard box has typical functions, such as storing things. However, it can do many other things. It could block an air vent. It could be a place for a small child or pet to play in. You could put things on it.
If we light this box on fire, it will lose parts of itself. It will lose some of its boxness. The arrangement of properties will be modified and reduced in amount of itself. This means that is will lose some of its ability to impart or produce effects when it interacts with things.
The parts that are on fire will change their arrangement of properties and become something else. The ashes are not the box itself. They are ashes of the material the box is made of. The ashes can produce effects, but they are not the box. So it would not be the box imparting or producing effects.
The degradation of the box means it has lost value. It doesn’t matter if that value is to a person or not.
A Person and their Arm
In the following, the actions were not being done for some greater positive value.
A person’s arm provides the person value. It enables them to do things. It has the ability to impart effect to themselves in a positive way.
If this person is damaging their arm such as digging around in it with a knife, people would likely try to stop them as they are negating the ability of the arm to impart effects in a positive way. They are damaging themselves.
We understand that the damage could be permanent and that the person is not likely doing this of sound mind. A sound mind makes decisions where the chosen choice is based on the ability to impart positive effect compared to the other choices.
Consider instead an android that looks like a person and it was removing from itself some ability to impart effect in a positive way. We would see it as doing something of negative value.
SUMMARY
Value is the ability to impart effect in all cases value is used.
- With numerical values, a larger number will produce a larger effect in any equation where numbers may produce some effect. So none of the 1 times 0 vs 10 times 0 shenanigans.
- With financial value, 5 dollars is going to have a greater ability to impart effect than 1 dollar will in a purchasing situation.
- Personal values are principles a person can hold that have an ability to impart effect.
- Sentimental value is a value that has the ability to impart an effect of a sentimental nature.