metavalue

plural metavalues

1. A standard by which good is measured, which is incommensurable with other values.

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

   1991, Christopher Hodgkinson, Educational Leadership: The Moral Art, page 108

   2 more examples

   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.

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

   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.

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