Idea or Attribute?

[nate]

I like debates. As long as they remain civil, anyway. A friend and I were discussing once and during said discussion something ticked in my mind. So I want to bring a discussion/debate to the domain:

Value.

Is it merely an idea? Or is it a definate attribute?

Discuss.

[Lost In Thought]

I suppose my vote would be more toward "Idea".
How valuable something is depends on the situation and the person, I'll steal an example my AP Economics teacher has used in class on a few occasions:
Typically, diamonds are assigned a higher value than water, despite water being necessary for survival, however if you were in a situation where you had a diamond that would be worth a lot of money, but you had no water and no way of getting water, you would be much more likely to trade the normally high valued diamond for water if given the opportunity - because your life depends on it, the otherwise low-value water has become much more valuable to you than the otherwise high-valued diamond.
Maybe I misunderstood what you meant by value though, In this I basically defined it as the amount of money you would be willing to spend on the item in question.
Even if I used a different definition though I can't think of many cases where value would be an innate attribute; even for something as important as one's own life, how valuable it is varies - some people would never risk their life for anything, some would sacrifice it for the life or lives of others, and some people end their lives or attempt to because for whatever reason they don't think it's valuable enough to justify continuing.

Edit: Colour. Was in a hurry last night and didn't make it colourful.

[whataface2]

I would have to say Idea. To me an attribute is more of a characteristic. For example you either have courage or you don't. An attribute is not going to change due to the situation such has a value of something will.

[nate]

Lost In Thought:
Good point - the idea of value changing on a situation is more over into the field of Priority, i would think. Thus, some one has to organize their 'values' into a higher priority given the circumstance. Value doesnt necessarily => money/currency/high liquid objects. It can mean a numerous of things.

An object that a person can see/feel/smell will have a value to that person as soon as they come to contact with it, even if it has supremely little. They see something - if they recognize it, they'll see how 'common place' it is. Based off of that, it'll seem unnoticed to that person.
But say they come across something they dont recognize. It's value will go up in that persons 'curiosity' field. They may want to know what that is, so it has a higher priority/value.


whataface2:
Are you saying some things dont have a characteristic of value? Back some time ago, salt was used as currency. it had value somewhere (though I'm not sure where). But for others, this salt was common place so it had little to no value. Now of course it seems that value is depending on the subjects used in context. Some need salt, some dont. America needs Oil, Iran doesnt </joke>.
But what if we werent talking about people? Let us take ourselves out of the equation. Does anything have value? Of course! Atoms will only form with certain atoms to form molecules, due to its valencies and various attributes. Plants still need water. Deer still need grass.

I think it is only through the attributes it has, that it can be of value, and that is dependant on whatever is in need of 'it'.
Good point when stating that an attribute is more of a characteristic.

As per the attribute not going to change due to the situation => Are you saying Life is not an attribute? Lets say that I go to a alley at night, in new york, and suddenly a guy comes up with a gun. The situation has changed. I went from walking home at night, to running away for my life. He shoots, it connects with me, and shortly after, I die. My attribute 'life' has just changed because of the previous stated situation.

[Lost In Thought]

Hm.. Okay, I have a question now. did you mean that people assign a value to everything, or that the value assigned to something is an innate property?
That is a bit hard to make sense of I think so I'll add a clarification; By "definate attribute", do you mean the value [Going with relative worth for the definition this time] of any 'thing' is going to be the same for everyone, everywhere, under all circumstances?
Or by "definate attribute" do you mean it will be assigned a value by anyone who comes across it, although the value may be different depending on the person, situation, and whatever other variables there may be?
Or did you mean that a 'thing' has value, weather or not a person has assigned a value to it [weather or not they know they gave it a value]?
Or did you mean something completely different?

"My attribute 'life' has just changed because of the previous stated situation."
That may have been a poor example; it seems more like a loss of the attribute than a change in the attribute.
I agree with you though, attributes can change. Say "size" is the attribute in question - a 1 month old has a very small size, but through time they grow, their size changes but they still have an attribute of size, it was not lost just altered.

[whataface2]

Well you both have just blown great big holes in my theory. Good example nate and Lost in thought.