Skip to main content
Log in

Instrumental Values – Strong and Weak

  • Published:
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

What does it mean that an object has instrumental value? While some writers seem to think it means that the object bears a value, and that instrumental value accordingly is a kind of value, other writers seem to think that the object is not a value bearer but is only what is conducive to something of value. Contrary to what is the general view among philosophers of value, I argue that if instrumental value is a kind of value, then it is a kind of extrinsic final value.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Allen, R.T., The Structure of Value. Aldershot: Avebury, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, D.M., Nominalism & Realism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, K., Abstract Particulars. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chisholm, R.M., Defining Intrinsic Value, Analysis (1981), pp. 99–100.

  • Dickie, George, Aesthetics: An Introduction. Indianapolis: Pegasus, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hare, R.M., Moral Reasoning about the Environment, Journal of Applied Philosophy 4, 1987.

  • Kagan, S., Rethinking Intrinsic Value, The Journal of Ethics 2 (1998), pp. 277–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Korsgaard, Christine M., Two Distinctions in Goodness, The Philosophical Review XCII (1983), pp. 169–195. Also published in Korsgaard, Christine M., Creating the Kingdom of Ends. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, C.I., Values and imperatives; Studies In Ethics. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellor, D.H., and Oliver, A. (eds.), Properties. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 112–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, G.E., Principia Ethica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, revised edition 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nozick, Robert, Philosophical Explanations. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Neill, John, The Varieties of Intrinsic Value, The Monist 75(2) (1992), pp. 119–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabinowicz, Wlodek, and Rønnow-Rasmussen, T., A Distinction in Value: Intrinsic and For Its Own Sake, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society vol. 100(1) (1999), pp. 33–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabinowicz, Wlodek, and Rønnow-Rasmussen, T., Tropic of Value, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (2001 forthcoming). For an earlier version, see Carlson, Erik, and Sliwinski, Rysiek, (eds.), Omnium-gathrum; Philosophical essays dedicated to Jan Österberg on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. Uppsala Philosophical Studies 50 (2001), pp. 263–277.

  • Rønnow-Rasmussen, T., Moral Realists and Moral Experts, in Carsten Bengt Pedersen and Niels Thamassen (eds.), Nature and Lifeworld; Theoretical and practical Metaphysics. Odense: Odense University press, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rashdall, H., The Theory of Good and Evil; A Treatise on Moral Philosophy, 2nd Ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1924.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stjernberg, Fredrik, An Argument Against The Trope Theory, Erkentnis (forthcoming).

  • Thomson, J.J., On Some Ways in Which a Thing Can Be Good, in Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller Jr. and Jeffrey Paul (eds.), The Good Life and The Human Good. Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Werkmeister, W.H., Historical spectrum of value theories, vol. I. Lincoln: Johnsen Publishing Company, 1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D.C., On the Elements of Being, Review of Metaphysics 7 (1953), pp. 3–18; also in Mellor, D.H., and Oliver, A., 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, Michael J., The Nature of Intrinsic Value. Lamham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2001a.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, Michael J., “Intrinsic Value and Individual Worth”, in Dan Egonsson, Björn Petersson, Jonas Josefsson and Toni Rønnow-Rasmussen (eds.), Exploring Practical Philosophy: From Action to Values. Ashgate Publishing, 2001b.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rønnow-Rasmussen, T. Instrumental Values – Strong and Weak. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 5, 23–43 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014422001048

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014422001048

Navigation