Intrinsic Value

IntrinsicValue and intrinsically useful are oxymorons. Utility (or value) is a property only in relation to an external entity, it cannot be intrinsic.

On the other hand, lest we get carried away by this desire for an unobtainable objectivity, note that IntrinsicValue is often used when what is meant is that that the thing being valued can be used as itself (e.g. a hammer, arable land etc.), rather than just for its exchange value. Sloppy maybe, but as long as that's the clear usage, no real harm.

Originally in the discussion of money in the AttentionEconomy page.

Money has neither less nor more value than any other object, because nothing has any objective value at all anyway. It's value is created by someone's desire for it, just as the value of a block of wood is created by my need for one if I have a fireplace or am a cabinet maker. If have no need of it as an end user and if I cannot exchange it for something else then it has no value to me and I might as well pitch it. The value is created by my desire, it is not an intrinsic property. To say that money has no value, or that it's value it created by consensual hallucination is to ignore the fact that this is true for everything else too.

This is without a doubt the stupidest objection conceivable.

The fact that all value and utility is imbued into things by human beings is not an important fact worth consideration. What is an important fact worth consideration is that certain things are imbued with value directly whereas other things are only imbued value because they are logically connected to other things whose value is imbued directly. We say that the former have inherent or intrinsic value while the latter have contingent, relative, derivative or extrinsic value.

For instance, for non-idiots, money, diplomas, jobs have only contingent value whereas food, shelter, clothing, music, scientific theories, and companionship all have inherent value. Of course, there are plenty of idiots on this world that assign inherent value to money. But in that case, we merely digress to questioning the objective or rational basis for this assignment.

Protesting such basic use of language is puerile.