Origins of Formal Axiology in Phenomenology and Implications for a Revised Axiological System

Abstract

This discussion explores the origins of formal axiology anchored in Edmund Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology. I show how the phenomenological perspective can lead to a restructuring of formal axiology to generate a more general system of value and valuation, which would relativise Hartman’s foundations in axiological science as only one model within the general axiological science of value. I review basic phenomenological techniques and show how Robert S. Hartman used them in his investigation and development of foundations for a scientific axiology. I analyze Hartman’s axiom of value from the phenomenological point of view of examining the object from many perspectives (emphasizing the notion of perspectivity) for a more thorough and precise capture of the object’s value, and for explaining why differing valuations of the same object are common. Through phenomenological horizon analysis, I explain the need for and benefits of targeted axiological profiles (taps), demonstrating why special interest profiles provide more accurate feedback reports to profile respondents. I call this, among other terms, high-definition value technology. I then examine the three dimensions of value and valuation from the phenomenological perspective, showing additional valuation- based constructs derivable from the HVP. I add these additional constructs to the standard HVP scoring, producing an expanded report format of 98 variables for each eighteen item list. I then elaborate in summary form an alternative tertiary value hierarchy (as an addition to or extension of Hartman’s binary value hierarchy) which transcends Hartman’s need for exponentiation and transfinite cardinal numbers to differentiate the three dimensions of formal axiology.