Understanding the social values of wilderness and the benefits of wilderness to the individual and to society is important for both the designation and management of these protected areas. To enable a useful discussion on this issue, it is important to first have a closer look at the meaning of the term 'value'. Examining the meaning of this term is particularly important, since it is used differently in different research disciplines. Therefore, before formulating the key questions of this chapter, this introductory section discusses the main perspectives on the term 'value' in the existing wilderness literature: