metavalue

English

Etymology

meta- +‎ value

Noun

metavalue (plural metavalues)

1. A standard by which good is measured, which is incommensurable with other values.
   • 1991, Christopher Hodgkinson, Educational Leadership: The Moral Art, page 108:

     Efficiency as a metavalue is applied forward, to the future; but as a value it is measured backwards, in respect to the past.

   • 2005, Francesco Parisi, Vernon L. Smith, The Law and Economics of Irrational Behavior, page 100:

     The preceding discussion assumes that happiness is the metavalue that the student maximizes. Perhaps some people seek happiness and others seek pleasure, social status, self-fulfillment, moral goodness, and so forth.

   • 2016, Phil Gaines, From Truth to Technique at Trial, page 7:

     The metavalue of truth, however, is the notion of truth in its overarching character—the value society holds that demands, for example, that truth values be determined for claims and charges.