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Full Idea
If what is final is whatever is an end but never a means, ...why should something be more valuable just because it is useless?
Gist of Idea
An end can't be an ultimate value just because it is useless!
Source
Christine M. Korsgaard (Aristotle and Kant on the Source of Value [1986], 8 'Finality')
Book Ref
Korsgaard,Christine M.: 'Creating the Kingdom of Ends' [CUP 1996], p.230
A Reaction
Korsgaard is offering this as a bad reading of what Aristotle intends.
Related Idea
Idea 18227 We desire final things just for themselves, and not for the sake of something else [Aristotle]
| 18233 | Contemplation is final because it is an activity which is not a process [Korsgaard] |
| 18226 | For Aristotle, contemplation consists purely of understanding [Korsgaard] |
| 18228 | An end can't be an ultimate value just because it is useless! [Korsgaard] |
| 18225 | If we can't reason about value, we can reason about the unconditional source of value [Korsgaard] |
| 18224 | Goodness is given either by a psychological state, or the attribution of a property [Korsgaard] |
| 18678 | Maybe final value rests on the extrinsic property of being valued by a rational agent [Korsgaard, by Orsi] |
| 9758 | To make sense of personal identity, focus on agency rather than experience [Korsgaard] |
| 9757 | A person viewed as an agent makes no sense without its own future [Korsgaard] |
| 9759 | Theory of action focuses on explanation and prediction; practical action on justification and choice [Korsgaard] |
| 9761 | Personal concern for one's own self widens out into concern for the impersonal [Korsgaard] |
| 9760 | Self-concern may be a source of pain, or a lack of self-respect, or a failure of responsibility [Korsgaard] |