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Food is just a means to sustain my metabolic processes and create pleasant sensations. It isn't an end-in-itself. If those goals were satisfied through other m
by dwaltrip 6y ago
Food is just a means to sustain my metabolic processes and create pleasant sensations. It isn't an end-in-itself.
If those goals were satisfied through other means, whether by using bio-engineering to modify my physiology or through some other process, would bread no longer have intrinsic value?
- shawnz 6y agoThis seems uselessly contrarian. Just because there are some philosophical edge cases/open questions about how we identify intrinsic versus extrinsic value doesn't change the fact that today, for human beings, the most useful and practical definition is one in which paper bills don't have intrinsic value but bread does.
- dwaltrip 6y agoI’m just trying to get at the heart of things. I am not trying to be difficult. I honestly don’t find the concept of intrinsic value to be useful or compelling. What are some examples beyond bread that meet your criteria of intrinsically valuable? How do you determine if something is an “end-in-itself”? I find it difficult to definitively attribute that label to anything.
- shawnz 6y agoFair enough... I am not sure how to precisely describe my interpretation of "end-in-itself". But here are some more things I would consider to have intrinsic value: Other food, clothes, fuel/oil/gas, building materials, consumer goods, etc. Some things like gold have some intrinsic value (for jewellry and electronics) and some extrinsic value (demand just for investments). You might say cash has some intrinsic value since it can be burned or melted down (but it's barely anything compared to the extrinsic value). Then you have bitcoin which literally has no intrinsic value at all, only extrinsic value.