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Inethics,intrinsic value is aproperty of anything that isvaluable on its own. Intrinsic value is in contrast toinstrumental value (also known as extrinsic value), which is a property of anything that derives its value from a relation to another intrinsically valuable thing.[1] Intrinsic value is always something that anobject has "in itself" or "for its own sake", and is anintrinsic property. An object with intrinsic value may be regarded as anend, or inKantian terminology, as anend-in-itself.[2]
The term "intrinsic value" is used inaxiology, a branch ofphilosophy that studies value (including both ethics andaesthetics). All majornormative ethical theories identify something as being intrinsically valuable. For instance, for avirtue ethicist,eudaimonia (human flourishing, sometimes translated as "happiness") has intrinsic value, whereas things that bring you happiness (such as having a family) may be merely instrumentally valuable. Similarly,consequentialists may identify pleasure, the lack of pain, and/or the fulfillment of one's preferences as having intrinsic value, making actions that produce them merely instrumentally valuable. On the other hand, proponents ofdeontological ethics argue that morally right actions (those that respect moralduty to others) are always intrinsically valuable, regardless of their consequences.
Other names for intrinsic value areterminal value,essential value,principle value, orultimate importance.[3]
In philosophy and ethics, anend, ortelos, is the ultimate goal in a series of steps. For example, according toAristotle the end of everything we do is happiness. It is contrasted to ameans, which is something that helps you achieve that goal. For example, money or power may be said to be a means to the end of happiness. Nevertheless, some objects may be ends and means at the same time.
End is roughly similar, and often used as a synonym, for the following concepts:
This table attempts to summarize the main intrinsic value of differentlife stances and other views, although there may be great diversity within them:
| Life stance and other views | Main intrinsic value |
|---|---|
| Moral nihilism | None |
| Humanism | human flourishing |
| Environmentalism | life flourishing |
| Feminism | gender equality |
| Multiculturalism | flourishing of cultural values beyond one's own |
| Hedonism | pleasure |
| Eudaemonism | human flourishing |
| Utilitarianism | utility (classically and usually,happiness orpleasure and absence of pain) |
| Rationaldeontologism | virtue or duty |
| Rational eudaemonism, or tempered Deontologism | both virtue and happiness combined[4] |
| Situational ethics | love |
| Christianity | Imago Dei |
| Judaism | Tikkun olam |
| Buddhism | Enlightenment andNirvana |
There may be zero, one, or several things with intrinsic value.[5]
Intrinsic nihilism, or simplynihilism (from Latinnihil, 'nothing') holds that there are zero quantities with intrinsic value.
Intrinsic aliquidism, or simplyaliquidism (from Latinaliquid, 'something') holds that there is one or more. This may be of several quantities, ranging from one single to all possible.[6]
Among followers of aliquidistic life stances regarding more than one thing as having intrinsic value, these may be regarded as equally intrinsically valuable or unequally so. However, in practice, they may in any case be unequally valued because of theirinstrumental values resulting in unequalwhole values.
This view may hold the intrinsic values of several life stances as intrinsically valuable. Note the difference between this and regarding several intrinsic values as more or lessinstrumentally valuable, since intrinsic monistic views also may hold other intrinsic values than their own chosen one as valuable, but then only to the degree other intrinsic values contribute indirectly to their own chosen intrinsic value.
The most simple form of intrinsic multism isintrinsic bi-ism (from Latintwo), which holds two objects as having intrinsic value, such ashappiness andvirtue.Humanism is an example of alife stance that accepts that several things have intrinsic value.[5]
Multism may not necessarily include the feature of intrinsic values to have a negative side—e.g., the feature ofutilitarianism to accept both pain and pleasure as of intrinsic value, since they may be viewed as different sides of the same coin.
Ietsism (Dutch:ietsisme, 'somethingism') is a term used for a range of beliefs held by people who, on the one hand, inwardly suspect—or indeed believe—that there is “more between Heaven and Earth” than we know about, but on the other hand do not accept or subscribe to the establishedbelief system,dogma or view of the nature ofGod offered by any particular religion.
In this sense, it may roughly be regarded as aliquidism, without further specification. For instance, most life stances include the acceptance of "there is something, some meaning of life, something that is an end-in-itself or something more to existence, and it is", assuming various objects or "truths", while ietsism, on the other hand, accepts "there is something", without further assumption to it.
Thetotal intrinsic value of an object is theproduct of itsaverage intrinsic value,average value intensity, andvalue duration. It may be either anabsolute or relative value. The total intrinsic value andtotal instrumental value together make thetotal whole value of an object.
The object with intrinsic value, theend, may be both aconcrete object or anabstract object.
In the case where concrete objects are accepted asends, they may be either singleparticulars or generalized to all particulars of one or moreuniversals. However, the majority oflife stances choose all particulars ofuniversals asends. For instance,Humanism does not assume individual humans asends but rather all humans ofhumanity.
When generalizing multiple particulars of a single universal it may not be certain whether theend is actually the individual particulars or the rather abstract universal. In such cases, a life stance may rather be acontinuum between having a concrete and abstractend.
This may render life stances of being both intrinsic multistic and intrinsic monistic at the same time. Such aquantity contradiction, however, may be of only minor practic significance, since splitting anend into manyends decreases thewhole value but increases thevalue intensity.
There may be a distinction betweenabsolute and relative ethic value regarding intrinsic value.
Relative intrinsic value is subjective, depending on individual and cultural views and/or the individual choice of life stance.Absolute intrinsic value, on the other hand, isphilosophically absolute and independent of individual and cultural views, as well as independent on whether it discovered or not what object has it.
There is an ongoing discussion on whether an absolute intrinsic value exists at all, for instance inpragmatism. In pragmatism,John Dewey's[7] empirical approach did not accept intrinsic value as an inherent or enduring property of things. He saw it as an illusory product of our continuousethic valuing activity as purposive beings. When held across only some contexts, Dewey held that goods are only intrinsic relative to a situation. In other words, he only believed in relative intrinsic value, but not any absolute intrinsic value. He held that across all contexts, goodness is best understood as instrumental value, with no contrasting intrinsic goodness. In other words, Dewey claimed that anything can only be of intrinsic value if it is a contributory good.
There may be bothpositive and negative value regarding intrinsic value, wherein something of positive intrinsic value is pursued or maximized, while something of negative intrinsic value is avoided or minimized. For instance, inutilitarianism,pleasure has positive intrinsic value andsuffering has negative intrinsic value.
Intrinsic value is mainly used in ethics, but the concept is also used in philosophy, with terms that essentially may refer to the same concept.
