20世纪美国的价值概念的演进已经走过了相当长远的历程。今天连市井百姓和政府人士都能够轻松地谈论价值问题,而哲学家、科学家、文学批评家和政治思想家对此更是不在话下。可是很少人知道情况并非一直如此。本世纪初,价值概念是从一个相当有限的基础开始发展的。在这个基础上,若干学科迅速地寻求它们之间的统一性,并且获得了各自的价值概念:伦理学的善和 The evolution of the American concept of value in the 20th century has come a long way. Today, even the ordinary citizens and government people can easily talk about the issue of value, and even more so by philosophers, scientists, literary critics and political thinkers. But few people know the situation is not always the case. At the beginning of this century, the concept of value began with a rather limited foundation. On this basis, several disciplines rapidly sought unity among themselves and acquired their own concept of value: the goodness of ethics