What is value?

I can see a lot of confusion about value. But here in my article I am trying to unravel the mystery for you, so you never get confused. As there is a lot of confusion, we should take a stepwise approach. Trust me, If I had to teach someone one thing from my whole life experience I would tell them " Value is a belief which is confined to a consciousness, it is neither real nor inherently valuable. " But, that claim does require a lengthy explanation. We can start examining dictionary meaning of values. Then what we understand generally by values. Lastly about the claim I made.

values

Dictionary meaning of Value.

The word value refers to the worth, importance, or usefulness of something. It can describe how much something is considered beneficial, meaningful, or desirable, whether in terms of money, quality, or personal significance. Value can also relate to principles or standards that guide behavior, such as honesty or kindness. In everyday use, it often reflects how much someone appreciates or prioritizes something in their life.

As you can see value governs everything we do, as it is the fundamental tool for our prioritization.

Now let's be more practical and think about our own lives. And formulate what we mean when we use the word value. I have heard this term in following occasions, see you can name a few more.

Where do we learn about values?

Whenever there is a transaction, we think about monetary value.

We judge our friends and give them values, some are best friends, some are just buddies, some are just work colleagues, some are enemies.

In a company or organization there are a set of values.

We value our own life more than anything or anyone, generally.

We have moral values that we adhere to.

Some people have opposite values to the general public; they often commit crimes and end up in jail.

Olympic Gold medal is valuable more than silver, Silver is more valuable than Bronze.

Olympic Gold medal is more valuable than the monetary value of the Gold it contains.

The monetary value of Gold is fluctuating each and every second according to supply and demand.

gold

Brainstorming about values

After all this discussion of value, my question is, in all of these wide variety of situations where the word value is used are we talking about the same thing? Or are they different. If it is the same thing, if the meaning of value is universal phenomena, how are they interconnected in these heterogenous situations where we encounter the word in life. In fact, everything you did today is according to your internal scale of values. So, the main driver of modern world is not liquid Gold. It is just the inherent value system of one's own mind. Even the price of the actual Gold. Let's go again the last example in the above list to understand these phenomena better.

What is monetary value of Gold?

If you look at any auction market - Gold/ stock/ Forex etc., the price fluctuates moment to moment. It looks random process, but it is not at all random. The reason behind these fluctuations is the discrepancy between supply and demand. At any given time these differences are small, hence there are only slow fluctuations. However, once in a while there will be big fluctuations due to various reasons. Maybe buyers don't want to buy anymore. Maybe sellers do not want to sell anymore. However, as you can see, the market price represents how a collection of involved people is thinking about the buying and selling. What their predictions on value. The actual value is just a label. But individually each and every participant has a value in their own mind. So, for the seller, the value is less, for the buyer the value is more. The market price is just where they meet to make a trade. You would see this heaped up values if you looked at the market depth. There are many asking prices and There are many bidding prices. At any given time, Gold can reach any of these prices (technically from zero to unlimited number) As that is only determined by the peoples' thoughts.

What is value?

Answer

Value is a belief (a thought) which is confined to a consciousness, it is neither real nor inherently valuable.

And this fact is not only true for market values, of monetary assets, but anything. Even a plastic bottle has a value, but only determined at the time of a trade, between two humans. So, it is not the bottle which carries the value it is the human mind. Company values, friendship values, moral values, monetary values. Although they seem markedly different from each other fundamentally they are connected as a brief belief arise within human mind. As thoughts are not permanent things, in mind, but fluctuating all day these values are also, not permanent, and inherently not valuable. This is the fact I summarized in the sentence "Value is a belief which is confined to a consciousness, it is neither real nor inherently valuable.".

Use cases

At this stage, you should ask me, So, what MML? What is the practical value of your point? For that I would reply, knowing your values deeply is the only way you can be rich, either materialistically or philosophically. You will be the smartest guy in a room full of people who are unaware to the fact that their minds creating a valuable reality while you see their mistake and weakness. You will be able to remain wise while they kill each other for thoughts, which aroused in their minds, without them even knowing. Maybe the following poem will be meaningful now.

Game of life.

Three men played a game, on the canvas of time.

Rules were set; the audience was there to witness it all.

Good and evil were winning.

While wisdom played in silence.

For a long time, until it becomes a duet.

And they shot at each other, stabbed at each other

While the audience shook in horror

The wisdom disappeared with the prize

Into the thin air.