ABSTRACT
An enormous quantity of intrinsic values is attached to so-called worldly goods. There are fields of life where it is particularly difficult to see a person's intrinsic value and instrumental value as separate things. Such fields include family relationships, erotic life, one's relationship to oneself and the field we call the supreme values. The parents have intrinsic value to the child, because the child loves them for their own sake. Children, too, have instrumental value to their parents in many ways: they continue the family line, provide support in old age, carry out the parents' own wishes and dreams, etc. Erotic love does not necessarily include the kind of love that reveals the other person's value as a person. As the relationship continues, the partners' intrinsic values and instrumental values become differentiated, but if the relationship continues successfully, they become united again in a new way.
