Instrumental

Notes

Instrumental is when we value something based on the indirect Utility it brings rather than the the importance of the thing in itself. For example, I can learn a degree not because I like the subject, but rather because I want to impress employers. So the "enjoyment of learning" is an Content/Notes/intrinsic cause for desire, while "getting a job" is an instrumental one.

An easy way to differentiate between instrumental and intrinsic is to ask yourself whether a better replacement had existed, would you have taken it instead. For example, a person who just wants to get hired, would not have gone to learn a degree if he was offered a job instead, while for the person who loves to study this subject, there is no replacement.

Therefore when something is instrumental to us, usually we have a weaker connection to it Alienation, and we can't trust that the connection will last. It is a pragmatic look on life, yet a cold one potentially. For example, a friendship that is based on monetary gains is not just less deep, but also less reliable for the giver because they know that once the money stops flowing, they will leave them. It becomes just a matter of Incentives.

This also implies that things without intrinsic value can have value in the eyes of the customers, which means that marketing has great power over us if it manages to convince us of the instrumental value of things.

To see things only in terms of their instrumental value, and prioritize things based on that value would turn us into Econs. We would be good friends only if we received the same level of support in return, we would be good employees only so far as it promotes our status, and once things get hard and we give more than we receive, we would abandon it completely.

The conflict between instrumental and intrinsic properties of objects is similar to the form vs essence conflict of individuals. We can compare the intrinsic properties of the individual as their soul, values, true desires, and their instrumental properties as their ego and image.

Visual

Overview

🔼Topic:: behavioral psychology (MOC) Origin:: The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish Link:: https://share.snipd.com/episode/1098c93b-c96b-43cd-b756-5cfa378aec19