more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
If a thing is only instrumentally good or bad, then even when its nature remains the same it might have a different instrumental value if the causal laws of the universe, or of other things in the universe, were different.
Clarification
Things are 'instrumentally' good if they serve a good end, rather than being good in themselves
Gist of Idea
An instrumentally good thing might stay the same, but change its value because of circumstances
Source
W. David Ross (The Right and the Good [1930], §IV)
Book Ref
Ross,W.David: 'The Right and the Good' [OUP 1930], p.108
A Reaction
A bad tin-opener might be instrumentally good if it was the only one you owned, so we don't need to change the causal laws of the universe.
| 419 | If one does not hope, one will not find the unhoped-for, since nothing leads to it [Heraclitus] |
| 18227 | We desire final things just for themselves, and not for the sake of something else [Aristotle] |
| 4381 | How can an action be intrinsically good if it is a means to 'eudaimonia'? [Ackrill on Aristotle] |
| 22494 | We must know the end, know that it is the end, and know how to attain it [Aquinas] |
| 7201 | Knowledge, wisdom and goodness only have value relative to a goal [Nietzsche] |
| 6674 | All moral judgements ultimately concern the value of ends [Rashdall] |
| 5922 | An instrumentally good thing might stay the same, but change its value because of circumstances [Ross] |
| 23882 | Ends, unlike means, cannot be defined, which is why people tend to pursue means [Weil] |