Value judgment facts for kids

A value judgment is when someone decides if something or someone is right or wrong, good or bad, or useful or not. This decision is often based on their own beliefs or the beliefs of a group they belong to. Sometimes, it can also mean making a quick decision with limited information because you need to act fast.

What is a Value Judgment?

A value judgment is a thought about what something should be, based on an opinion of what is "good" or "bad." This is different from a thought based on simple facts.

For example:

• "The government should make education better" is a value judgment. It shows that the person believes education is good.
• "People will buy less if our prices go up" is not a value judgment. It's a fact based on how people usually react to higher prices.

The term "value judgment" can be used in two main ways:

• Positive way: It means you should think carefully and consider your deeper beliefs when making a decision. It encourages you to look for clear, provable evidence.
• Negative way: It suggests a decision is narrow-minded and not fair. This is different from decisions made after careful thought and with public evidence.

Sometimes, "value judgment" means making a quick decision when you don't have all the information. This might happen in an emergency, like deciding whether to launch a military attack or what to do in a medical crisis. In these cases, the decision might not be perfect because information is missing due to the urgent situation.

Most often, a value judgment is just an individual's opinion. Our opinions are shaped by our beliefs and the culture we live in. So, a value judgment can also refer to ideas that are seen differently by different cultures or belief systems. This is like cultural relativism, which means that the meaning of things depends on their cultural background. It's also related to moral relativism, which suggests that what is right or wrong isn't the same for everyone, but comes from their culture. A value judgment made within one specific belief system might not be accepted by a wider group of people.

Value-neutral

The term value-neutral means that something is independent of any specific belief system. An object is considered value-neutral if it is not good or bad, useful or useless, or important or unimportant on its own. It only gets these qualities when it's placed in a social situation.

For example, whether an object is a tool or a weapon depends on how it's used. Or, if human remains are seen as an artifact (an object made by humans) or an ancestor depends on the cultural view.

A famous mathematician named G.H. Hardy once talked about how mathematics, which seems value-neutral, can be seen in a social context. He said, "A science is said to be useful if its development tends to accentuate the existing inequalities of wealth, or more directly promotes the destruction of human life." This shows how even neutral subjects can be viewed through a lens of values.

However, some things might have value and be value-neutral no matter the social context. For example, oxygen is always important for life in all societies.

Value Judgments and Their Context

Some people believe that being truly objective (seeing things exactly as they are, without any personal feelings) is impossible. They argue that even the most careful analysis is based on certain values that we accept.

This means that all conclusions could be seen as value judgments. But simply calling everything a "value judgment" isn't very helpful because it doesn't help us tell them apart. A conclusion becomes meaningful as a value judgment when we explain the situation or beliefs that shaped it.

For example, scientific "truths" are considered objective. But scientists know that these truths might change if new evidence or wider experiences come along. A scientific view, in a broader sense, is a type of value judgment that is built by many people through careful study and wide agreement. So, calling a view a value judgment is vague unless you describe the situation around it.

However, in everyday talk, the term value judgment usually has a simpler meaning. The situation or context is just understood, not specifically explained.

See also