Subject: Re: Inherent value of money/tools [was: Re: Questions about Symbolics lisp machines] From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 16:30:28 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3226235443145526@naggum.net> * "Frank A. Adrian" | I don't know yet. Is a knife a good thing? Is a car a good thing? There is a significant difference between the goodness of the existence of something vs the goodness of its non-existence and the goodness of the uses of something that already is taken for granted to exist. One does not imply the other. Or, equivalent, the difference between the value of an enabling technology or science, i.e., that it has been brought forth, and the value of what it enables. | In the end, I am still unsure whether value is intrinsic in a tool or if | we all simply project our own values upon ostensibly neutral objects from | which the world is constructed. What if things have no value, neither in themselves nor given by us, but that you value things according to their relation to the rest of your set of values? I.e., value is not "in" the thing (intrinsic) and not "in" you (subjective), but "between" you and the thing (personal relation). /// -- In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none. In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.