Intrinsic value

Let me start then, by distinguishing two concepts of intrinsic value. On the one hand, we have the notion of the value that an object has independently of all other objects— the value that an object has in itself. Philosophers sometimes try to get at this kind of value by suggesting that it is the value that an object would have even if it were the only thing existing in the universe. Although this suggestion is not without its difficulties, it points us towards the basic idea that value of this sort must depend solely upon the intrinsic — that is, roughly, nonrelational — properties of the object…This first notion of intrinsic value should be distinguished from a second concept, that of the value that an object has “as an end.” […]

Intrinsic value has traditionally been thought to lie at the heart of ethics. Philosophers use a number of terms to refer to such value. The intrinsic value of something is said to be the value that that thing has “in itself,” or “for its own sake,” or “as such,” or “in its own right.”