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{{Short description|Philosophical concept}}
{{Overquotation|date=June 2019}}
In [[moral philosophy]], '''instrumental and intrinsic value''' are the distinction between what is a ''means to an end'' and what is as an ''end in itself''.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|last1=Hirose|first1=Iwao|title=The Oxford Handbook of Value Theory|last2=Olson|first2=Jonas|date=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Things are deemed to have '''instrumental value''' (or '''extrinsic value'''<ref>{{Cite web |title=instrumental value |url=https://www.ipbes.net/glossary-tag/instrumental-value |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=IPBES Homepage}}</ref>) if they help one achieve a particular end; '''intrinsic values''', by contrast, are understood to be desirable in and of themselves. A tool or appliance, such as a hammer or washing machine, has instrumental value because it helps one pound in a nail or clean clothes, respectively. Happiness and pleasure are typically considered to have intrinsic value insofar as asking ''why'' someone would want them makes little sense: they are desirable for their own sake irrespective of their possible instrumental value. The classic names ''instrumental'' and ''intrinsic'' were coined by sociologist [[Max Weber]], who spent years studying good meanings people assigned to their actions and beliefs.
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The word ''value'' is ambiguous in that it is both a [[verb]] and a [[noun]], as well as denoting both a criterion of judgment itself and the result of applying a criterion.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dewey|first=John|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.204950|title=Theory of Valuation|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1939|pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.204950/page/n13 1]–6}}</ref><ref name="Tiles">{{cite book|last1=Tiles|first1=Mary|title=Living in a Technological Culture|last2=Oberdiek|first2=Hans|publisher=Routledge|year=1995}}</ref>{{rp|37–44}} To reduce ambiguity, throughout this article the noun ''value'' names a criterion of judgment, as opposed to ''valuation'' which is an object that is judged valuable. The [[plural]] ''values'' identifies collections of valuations, without identifying the criterion applied.
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[[Immanuel Kant]] is famously quoted as saying:<blockquote>So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as means only. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Kant |first=Immanuel |date=1785 |title=Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic Of Morals |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5682/5682-h/5682-h.htm |access-date=2024-12-16 |website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref></blockquote>Here, Kant considers both instrumental and intrinsic value, although not calling them by those names.
The classic names ''instrumental'' and ''intrinsic'' were coined by sociologist [[Max Weber]], who spent years studying good meanings people assigned to their actions and beliefs. According to Weber, "[s]ocial action, like all action, may be" judged as:<ref name="Max 22">{{cite book|last=Weber|first=Max|url=https://archive.org/details/economysociety00webe|title=Economy and Society|date=1978|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520028241|url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|24–5}}▼
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# '''Instrumental rational''' (''[[zweckrational]]''): action "determined by expectations as to the behavior of objects in the environment of other human beings; these expectations are used as 'conditions' or 'means' for the attainment of the actor's own rationally pursued and calculated ends."
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