intrinsic value

Noun

intrinsic value (countable and uncountable, plural intrinsic values)

1. The real value of something, calculated with regard to an inherent, objective measure, which may not take into account its market value or face value.
2. Non-relational or non-instrumental value, or the value something has in itself, for its own sake, or as such.
   • 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...1998, Shelly Kagan, “Rethinking Intrinsic Value”, in The Journal of Ethics, volume 2, number 4, pages 277–297
   • 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.”2014, “Intrinsic Value vs. Extrinsic Value”, in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy