Editing Value judgment (section)

==Explanation==
A ''value judgment'' is a thought about something based on what it "ought" or "should" be given an opinion about what counts as "good" or "bad" — a contrast from a thought based on what the facts are. E.g. "The government should improve access to education" is a value judgment (that education is good). "People will buy less of our products if our price goes up" is not a value judgment because it is based on the fact that people tend to buy less of a more expensive product. It can be used either in a positive sense, signifying that a judgment must be made taking a value system into account, or in a disparaging sense, signifying a judgment made by personal whim rather than [[objectivity (philosophy)|objective]] thought or evidence.<ref name=Schaffner>{{cite book |author=Michael Scriven (KF Schaffner & RS Cohen, eds.) |title=Philosophy of Science Association PSA: Boston studies in the philosophy of science, v. 20 |page=219 ff |publisher=Dordrecht:Reidel |location=Boston |year=1974 |isbn=90-277-0408-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nhY1vAIbdakC&q=%22value+judgment%22&pg=PA220}}</ref>

In its positive sense, a recommendation to make a value judgment is an admonition to consider carefully, to avoid whim and impetuousness, and search for consonance with one's deeper convictions, and to search for an objective, [[Authentication|verifiable]], public, and consensual set of evidence for the [[opinion]].

In its disparaging sense the term ''value judgment'' implies a conclusion is insular, one-sided, and not objective — contrasting with judgments based upon deliberation, balance, and public evidence.

''Value judgment'' also can refer to a tentative judgment based on a considered appraisal of the information at hand, taken to be incomplete and evolving—for example, a ''value judgment'' on whether to launch a military attack or as to procedure in a medical emergency.<ref name=Shrader-Frechette>{{cite book |author=[[Kristin Shrader-Frechette]] (Cohen, R.S., Gavroglou, K., Stachel, J.J., & Wartofsky, M.W., eds.) |title=The case of Yucca Mountain: Science, politics and social practice |page=204 ff |publisher=Springer |location= Dordrecht/New York |year=1995 |isbn=0-7923-2989-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZIo86_X2FAcC&q=%22value+judgment%22&pg=PA205}}</ref> In this case, the quality of judgment suffers because the information available is incomplete as a result of exigency, rather than as a result of cultural or personal limitations.

Most commonly the term ''value judgment'' refers to an individual's [[opinion]]. Of course, the individual's opinion is formed to a degree by their belief system and the culture to which they belong. So a natural extension of the term ''value judgment'' is to include declarations seen one way from one value system but may be seen differently from another. Conceptually this extension of the definition is related both to the [[anthropological]] axiom "[[cultural relativism]]" (that is, that cultural meaning derives from a context) and to the term "[[moral relativism]]" (that is, that moral and ethical propositions are not universal truths, but stem from cultural context). A  value judgment formed within a specific value system may be parochial and may be subject to dispute in a wider audience.

===Value-neutral===
''Value-neutral'' is a related adjective suggesting independence from a value system. The object itself is considered value-neutral when it is neither good nor bad, neither useful nor useless, neither significant nor trite until placed in some social context. For example, the classification of an object sometimes depends upon context: Whether or not an object is a tool or a weapon, or if human remains are an [[Cultural artifact|artifact]] or an [[ancestor]].

Max Weber put forward one of the first concepts of value-neutrality.

A famous quote from mathematician [[G.H. Hardy]] indicates how he places the "value-neutral" subject of mathematics into a particular social context: "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".<ref name=Encarta>{{cite book |title=Encarta Book of Quotations |author1=Bill Swainson |author2=Anne H. Soukhanov |page=408 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Af84fBmzmVYC&q=Hardy+%22a+science+is+said+to+be+useful+if+its+development%22&pg=PA408 |isbn=0312230001 |publisher=Macmillan |year=2000}}</ref>

For a discussion of whether technology is value neutral, see Martin and Schinzinger,<ref name=Martin>{{cite book |author1=Mike W Martin  |author2=Schinzinger R  |name-list-style=amp |title=Ethics in engineering |page=279 |publisher=McGraw-Hill Professional |edition=Fourth |location=Boston |year=2005 |isbn=0-07-283115-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=64iYMPnD3X0C&q=centrifugal+turntable}}</ref> and Wallace.<ref name=Wallace>{{cite book |author=[[Philip Russell Wallace]] |title=Physics |page=Chapter 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=64iYMPnD3X0C&q=centrifugal+turntable |isbn=9971-5-0930-X |publisher=World Scientific |year=1991 |no-pp=true}}</ref>

An item may have value and be value-neutral ''regardless'' of social context if its utility or importance is more-or-less self-evident, for example, oxygen supports life in all societies.