2013-03-11, 06:50 PM
SaptaZapta Wrote:Very very few things have "intrinsic value" the way you define it - grand things like "life" or vague concepts like "happiness", maybe.
Just about everything else only has "utilitarian value" in that it contributes to those.
Arguable. William Frankena compiled a list of things he considered to possess intrinsic values, to qoute SEP:
SEP Wrote:life, consciousness, and activity; health and strength; pleasures and satisfactions of all or certain kinds; happiness, beatitude, contentment, etc.; truth; knowledge and true opinions of various kinds, understanding, wisdom; beauty, harmony, proportion in objects contemplated; aesthetic experience; morally good dispositions or virtues; mutual affection, love, friendship, cooperation; just distribution of goods and evils; harmony and proportion in one's own life; power and experiences of achievement; self-expression; freedom; peace, security; adventure and novelty; and good reputation, honor, esteem, etc.
Even though I myself am not very fluent on the distinctions among them (how they are qualitatively different), it is at least not unreasonable to propose knowledge as an intrinsic value of education of any level/kind. But yes, although I do feel that this is one of those periodic rants, I nevertheless thought it couldn't hurt to bring something up for a change of flavor.