The concept of value is more complex than it might initially appear. Values can range across personal preferences as indicated by pleasures, desires, wants, and needs to more objective goods such as health, efficiency, progress, truth, beauty, and more. Values can also be negative as well as positive, and in the former case they are commonly termed "disvalues," with examples being pain or illness. Values in all these senses both influence and are influenced by science and technology.

However, what precisely makes each of these diverse phenomena into values is more difficult to indicate. The concept of value, its manifestation in values, and the process of valuing (and evaluation) have been subject to diverse economic, social scientific, and philosophical analyses, each of which introduces numerous distinctions of relevance to any description and assessment of values in and resulting from science, engineering, and technology. Because...