Editing Value judgment (section)

===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.