Dr Han van Wietmarschen: Valuing People

Hilary Mantel has Anne Boleyn say: 'I was always desired. But now I am valued. And that is a different thing, I find.' Like Anne, we may find ourselves valued, or not, by people around us. We may also think of ourselves as valuing our friends, family members, or even our colleagues. What is it for one person to value another person? I will attempt to use recent work on valuing in general to try to understand what it is to value people in particular. This will lead to a number of puzzles and questions concerning the possibility of valuing worthless things, concerning the idea that persons have a worth and not just a price, and concerning the idea that the proper response to the worth of persons is respect. I will try to resolve the puzzles and answer the questions, but I do not make any promises.