The Value of Persons: A Pragmatic Approach

Valuating persons is a familiar activity, one that we all perform on a daily basis in relation to our loved ones, colleagues, neighbors, representatives, celebrities or even fictional characters. Yet, despite its familiarity, the issue of valuating persons has hardly ever been addressed by the social sciences in a pragmatic and comprehensive perspective. As with any kind of valuations, those centered on individuals align with implicit rules that make them more or less effective or credible. Those rules belong to an ‘axiological grammar’ rendering explicit a wide range of worth proofs (from status to talent, physical appearance or deeds), the decisive role of evaluation ‘tests’ (exams, competitions, public performances) and, finally, the inevitable designing of hierarchies, through comparison, which put the value of equality to the test. Proofs, tests and hierarchies are the major stages in the ordinary production of inequalities through the valuation of persons.