Values in Decision Making. Sustainability
Instumental and Autotelic Values
Instrumental (extrinsic, contributory) values are appreciated when they are efficient means of achieving something else.
Autotelic values (values "in themselves,” intrinsic values) are most important goals for the agent. Those that are valuable for the entity regardless of their usefulness (of whether the agent thinks that their implementation would bring some benefit other than their achievement).
The fact: Some individuals and groups consider sustainability an autotelic value. For them, it is the prerequisite for efficiency.
Hierarchy of values
The concept of value rationality was coined by Weber to highlight the complexity and unity of rational commitments of the entity which, although they aim at different objectives, constitute a dynamic wholeness, because they are by default or directly aimed at achieving the intrinsic (autotelic) value chosen by the agent. As Weber shows, the rational decisions constitute a hierarchy where the aims pursued by the agent act as a means to achieve other goals. Objectives of the action, except for the purposes on the top of the hierarchy, are of instrumental value to the agent, because their implementation is valuable for them and in so far as they serve (are an instrument) to implement other objectives than themselves. At the top of the hierarchy, there are the most important goals for the agent. These are autotelic values, “values in themselves” or “intrinsic values” (Ger. Eigenwert), that is, those that are valuable for the entity regardless of their usefulness (of whether the agent thinks that their implementation would bring some benefit other than their achievement). Value-rational intentions respect these values. The lack of value rationality or axiological irrationality of the decision lie in the fact that the entity sacrifices the autotelic values to achieve some instrumental values. (Weber 1985, 2011)
Source:
Weber, M. (1985). Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.