"[2] Contingencies of Value received generally positive views in scholarly periodicals, with some reviewers expressing misgivings about gaps and weaknesses in Smith's argument for a radically relativist theory of value.

Smith presents a compelling case for the "radical contingency" of value and keenly describes the complex systems within which value judgments take shape, exist, and circulate.

She displays a formidable command of difficult, dense philosophical issues and controversies, and her distinguished work in reviewing, elaborating upon, and re-articulating them forcefully challenges both conservative scholars who adhere to notions of "transcendent" value and radical theorists who urge that we see all value judgments as mere expressions of class, race, and gender bias.

Meili Steele, in Comparative Literature, wrote that "Barbara Smith's book uses a functional/systemic model drawn from sociology to examine axiological theories of the past and present.

"[6] Martin Mueller, reviewing the book in Salmagundi, pointed to what he found as a weakness in her account of value: "There may be practical virtue in the amiable hypocrisy of a conceptual style that never asserts the ultimate principles by which it is guided.