Value

Once you accept the postulate of Quality: that states of being possess different degrees of the ineffable "goodness", you can think of Value as the difference between one degree of goodness and another. Value (V) is equal to the change in Quality (Q): $V = ∆Q$. It is proportional to how much things improve or deteriorate.

Stated more formally, if $Q(s)$ is a function that maps states $s$ to the degree of Quality, then Value is the difference between the final and initial states: $V = Q(s_1) - Q(s_0)$.

This is not about describing which things are valuable; it is about describing the phenomenological reality of our conscious experience.

You know this intuitively: a night of sleep restores your biological body, an experience you perceive as having positive Value (or simply "good"). The better the sleep, the greater the change in Quality, the more positive you feel about the experience. On the other hand, a sudden injury decreases the state of Quality, which we perceive as negative Value.

Although I used a biological example, Value is not confined to the material dimension. We humans are multi-faceted beings that live across hundreds of different storylines that are unfolding in different dimensions of existence: resting, sleeping, eating, studying, parenting, working, socializing, etc. Every one of these stories we inhabit can proceed in a positive direction or in a negative direction. The degree of improvement or progress along these stories is the degree of positive Value we experience. Tiredness after a good day is secondary to the sense of fulfillment it brings. The material body might be in a worse state, but there's a sense that we've made progress in the overarching story of our life.

This raises the question: what constitutes progress?

You cannot arbitrarily decide what is high Quality; it is independent of your subjective judgement. This means you cannot define for yourself what is going to bring Value to your life, which stories, which aims, are going to lead to actual progress and a sense of fulfillment. In other words, you cannot choose your values, your interests, your passions. If you could, you could set any goal for yourself and the progress toward the defined destination would be experienced as good (i.e., positive Value).

This framework is teleological in essence. The Quality postulate specifies that there's such a thing as the "right thing", which sets a direction for our phenomenological reality. If there's such a thing as the right thing, then there is the right direction, aim, frame or story for every single person. Living in alignment with that ultimate frame is what constitues personal progress. Living in alignment with your deepest values is what brings fulfillment.

This point is beautifully articulated in this video: What even is a good day? . A good day, or a day of positive Value, is about:

"Alignment. Aristotle might have called it eudaimonia. A state of flourishing. A life lived in accordance with one's highest nature. Not a momentary pleasure. A sustained harmony between your actions and your deeper values." — Joan Westenberg

Our incessant flailing in life is about living in misalignment. We might be making objective progress in the stories that we've selected out of fear or that society has selected for us, but that's not true progress. True progress comes from recognizing our deeper values and getting on our ultimate path. That is the "narrow way" described in the Sermon on the Mount:

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." — Matthew 7:13–14