Axiology, according to its Greek etymology, means "theory of values." The term was introduced at the beginning of the twentieth century when it became a recognized part of philosophy. As a discipline distinct from science, axiology was sometimes even equated with the whole of philosophy, especially in Germany. The first books containing this expression are Paul Lapie's Logique de la volonté (1902); Eduard von Hartmann's Grundriss der Axiologie (1908); and Wilbur Marshal Urban's Valuation (1909).

The Concept of Value

This new branch of philosophy emerged as the concept of value, after having been treated almost exclusively in a technical sense in economics, began to be used in the plural (values) and to be an issue in philosophy. In response to the cultural imperialism of the sciences (including the so-called "human sciences"), philosophers defended their discipline and stressed that the "domain of values" was precisely a field that no science was able...