The ambiguities in the use of value and related words that William Frankena acutely summarized persist. But there has been some further work on value, especially in the narrow ethical sense of what is desirable or worth pursuing, that deserves comment. Some of the most interesting recent research has been by psychologists.

In relation to aesthetic value, psychologists have investigated how the kinds of experiences that we think point toward aesthetic value in their objects are produced. The psychology of identification with characters in fiction has been a fertile subject. So has the role of the unexpected (or not entirely expected) in appreciation of music. In all of this, there has been a tendency to connect aesthetic value with the quality of experiences that works of art (or beauties in nature) provide to those who are prepared to respond to them.

In...