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HYPERVENTILATING ABOUT INTRINSIC VALUE⋆ the Friends Of FRED FELDMAN HYPERVENTILATING ABOUT INTRINSIC VALUE ? (Received 18 June 1998; accepted in revised form 10 July 1998) ABSTRACT. Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Brentano, Moore, and Chisholm have suggested “marks” or criteria of intrinsic goodness. I distinguish among eight of these. I focus in this paper on four: (a) unimprovability, (b) unqualifiedness, (c) dependence upon intrinsic natures, and (d) incorruptibility. I try to show that each of these is problematic in some way. I also try to show that they are not equivalent – they point toward distinct conceptions of intrinsic goodness. In the end it appears that none of them is fully satisfactory. Insofar as none of these succeeds, a fundamental problem remains for those who make use of the concept of intrinsic value. Precisely what do we have in mind when we say that some sort of value is “intrinsic”? KEY WORDS: Aristotle, axiology, Brentano, Chisholm, intrinsic value, Kant, Moore, Plato, The Good, theory of value 1. HYPERBOLIC REMARKS ABOUT INTRINSIC GOODNESS The friends of intrinsic value (and here I include myself) often lapse into poetry when they try to describe the object of their common interest. They speak in metaphor, analogy, and hyperbole. Plato, for example, gave analo- gies, saying that The Good is in some way like the sun.1 He suggested that each is a source of immense value. And just as the sun is too blinding to observe directly with the naked eye, so the form of The Good is too dazzling to contemplate directly with the naked mind. In a particularly high-flying passage, Plato compares a philosopher who has grasped the concept of goodness with a cave-dweller who has emerged from his subterranean cavern into the blinding light of the sun. He says: In the world of knowledge, the last thing to be perceived and only with great difficulty is the essential Form of Goodness. Once it is perceived, the conclusion must follow that, for all things, this is the cause of whatever is right and good; in the visible world it gives birth to light and to the lord of light, while it is itself sovereign in the intelligible world and the ? Paper presented at the 21st Annual Greensboro Symposium in Philosophy, April 5, 1998. I thank Alison McIntyre, Michael Zimmerman, Earl Conee, and Owen McLeod for helpful comments. 1 Plato, The Republic, translated and with an introduction and notes by Francis MacDonald Cornford (New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1958), p. 231. The Journal of Ethics 2: 339–354, 1998. © 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. 340 FRED FELDMAN parent of intelligence and truth. Without having had a vision of this Form no one can act with wisdom, either in his own life or in matters of state.2 Those who perceive this blinding form of goodness will return to their cavern dazed and confused. Their former compatriots will think them ridiculous, and may even try to kill them. Immanuel Kant likewise drew comparisons. In describing a thing he took to be good in some outstandingly fundamental way, he tried to make clear that this thing does not have its value because of its capacity to produce good results. For even if “by the niggardly provision of a stepmotherly nature” it were to have no extrinsic value at all: ...itwouldstill sparkle like a jewel in its own right, as something that had its full worth initself....Itsusefulnesswouldbeonlyitssetting, as it were, so as to enable us to handle it more conveniently in commerce or to attract the attention of those who are not yet connoisseurs, but not to recommend it to those who are experts or to determine its worth.3 G. E. Moore himself seemed to have trouble finding clear, literal words to describe this object. In one place, while struggling to express himself, he said this: “If I am asked ‘what is good?’ my answer is that good is good, and that is the end of the matter. Or if I am asked ‘How is good to be defined?’ my answer is that it cannot be defined, and that is all I have to say about it.”4 It seems to me that we simply must do better than this. Metaphors and analogies and enforced silences will not help us to understand each other or the object of our common interest. I fear that by speaking in these confusing ways, we give aid and comfort to those who are no friends of intrinsic goodness. They are inclined to think that we don’t know what we are talking about (or maybe that we are talking about nothing at all). It also seems to me that insofar as there is confusion about intrinsic goodness, there is even greater confusion about the other concepts of axi- ology and perhaps also those of normative ethics. For it is reasonable to suppose that other value concepts (extrinsic goodness, signatory goodness, etc.) are to be defined by appeal to the concept of intrinsic goodness. It is also at least somewhat reasonable to suppose that the concept of intrinsic goodness plays some role in the explanation of such things as moral rightness of actions, and virtuosity of character. 2 Ibid. 3 Immanuel Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, translated, with an Intro- duction, by Lewis White Beck (Indianapolis and New York: Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1959), p. 10. 4 G. E. Moore, Principia Ethica, edited and with an introduction by Thomas Baldwin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 58. HYPERVENTILATING ABOUT INTRINSIC VALUE 341 Thus, there is reason for us to insist upon clarity and precision in our statements about the nature of intrinsic goodness. 2. SEARCHING FOR A CRITERION OF INTRINSIC GOODNESS Here’s one way to tackle the question. We can assume that there are several sorts of goodness. First and foremost, of course, there is intrinsic goodness – the “Chief good” (in Aristotle’s phrase).5 In addition, there are several lesser sorts of goodness. These include goodness as a means, goodness as a sign, goodness as a part, overall goodness, logical goodness (as in “that’s a good argument, but the conclusion is false”), monetary goodness, aesthetic goodness, functional goodness and perhaps others. We can then try to determine what’s distinctive about intrinsic goodness. We can, that is, seek a “criterion” or “mark” of intrinsic goodness – something that will enable us to distinguish this most important sort of goodness from all the others. Several of the great moral philosophers of the past seem to have given some thought to this question, and some of them apparently have pro- vided suggestions of answers. Each of the suggestions embodies a sort of “guiding intuition” about intrinsic goodness. Each suggests one way to distinguish this value concept from others. I am aware of at least eight main guiding intuitions about intrinsic good- ness (Perhaps it would be better to say that I am aware of some passages in writings of great moral philosophers; if in these passages the philosophers were talking about intrinsic goodness, then these passages seem to contain hints of at least eight distinct guiding intuitions about intrinsic goodness). I here briefly list the guiding intuitions, give some references, and suggest some sketchy interpretations: 1. The intrinsically good as the unimprovably good. Hints of this intuition can be found in Plato in the Philebus, and in Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics I,7. Aristotle indicates that he is searching for something that is so good that if you have it, your life cannot be improved by the addition of anything else. Happiness (which he takes to be this marvelous thing) is alleged to be “not a thing counted as one good thing among others – if it were so counted it would clearly be made more desirable by the addition of even the least of goods; ...”Onthecontrary,happinessisunimprovably 5 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, translated by W. D. Ross, in The Basic Works of Aris- totle edited and with an introduction by Richard McKeon (New York: Random House, 1941), p. 941 (Bk I, Ch 7. 1097a27). 342 FRED FELDMAN good – it is “...thatwhichwhenisolatedmakeslife desirable and lacking in nothing (NE I,7).” 2. The intrinsically good as the most final good. Again, this idea can be found in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. He says, “The chief good is something final. [it is] always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else.” (NE I,7) 3. The intrinsically good as the unqualifiedly good. Immanuel Kant sug- gests this idea in the Groundwork, where he discusses the good will, which according to him shines like a jewel (Section One, first sentence): Nothing in the world – indeeed nothing even beyond the world – can possibly be conceived which could be called good without qualification except a good will....6 The good will is not good because of what it effects or accomplishes or because of its adequacy to achieve some proposed end; it is good only because of its willing, i.e., it is good of itself.7 (The first quoted sentence suggests that intrinsically good things are good without qualification; the second sentence assures us that he is talking about intrinsic goodness.) 4. The intrinsically good as the object of correct intrinsic love. This is Franz Brentano’s idea. In The Origin of our Knowledge of Right and Wrong,8 Brentano says: “We call a thing good when the love relating to it is correct. In the broadest sense of the term, the good is that which is worthy of love, that which can be loved with the love that is correct.” 5. The intrinsically good as that which is good in virtue of its intrinsic nature.
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