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Of course, Wikipedia is neither authoritative nor internally consistent—no surprise there. But, having encountered the word axiology, I checked out the article of that name, which asserts that “it is also closely related to value theory and meta-ethics.” But based on the sense that I was beginning to form of axiology, the term value theory seemed like a perfectly apt synonym (so, I wondered, why merely “closely related“?). And when I clicked through to that article I was rewarded with the assertion that “within philosophy, it is also known as ethics or axiology.”

Clearly, a philosopher might come at these matters differently than, say, an economist. But is there any consensus on the (intensional or extensional) meanings of the pair of terms axiology and value theory? Or, to phrase my question differently, is there a resolution of the partial discordance between the two Wikipedia articles on which most philosophers along with specialists in the other relevant disciplines would agree? Indeed—hitting closer to home—how would this very site explain the relationship between its tags axiology and value theory?

I have seen this site’s question, What is the branch of philosophy concerned with such questions? but the relevant answer has received only a single upvote and focuses only on the terminology within philosophy.

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    Most time Wikipedia is a good introduction but nearly always it needs further searching. The articles from the Plato online encyclopedy at Stanford is a continuative reference. Following the link from your question you find that plato.stanford.edu/entries/value-theory answers your question: value theory in the narrow sense = axiology.
    – Jo Wehler
    Commented Nov 4, 2023 at 15:20

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The SEP article on Value Theory, here, distinguishes between different uses of the terms and identifies one use of value theory/a theory of value that identifies them as synonymous but it doesn't seem as if the terms are entirely consistently used such that there is widespread agreement about the meanings of the terms. (And, indeed, 'value theory' might be sufficiently non-technical of a term that such agreement might not be possible; a non-philosopher might speak of value theory in relation to poker (here), in relation to investments (here), or in relation to nutrition (here).)

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