Instrumental Value - Long and Short Term

Long and Short Term

Short and long term instrumental value may be distinguished regarding time distance to generation of their ends-in-themselves (the chain of events duration). It is distinguished from value duration, which is the duration of the existence or intensity of the object itself. It is also distinguished from high and low grades of instrumental value, which is the amount of causes and effects in the chain of events.

A short term instrumental value is a value which is generating its end-in-itself in the very near future. For instance, for a hedonist, with pleasure as the end-in-itself, a glass of wine is something that may result in pleasure to happen soon.

A long term instrumental value, on the other hand, is a value that requires long time before generating its end-in-itself. For a hedonist, a job, for instance, has high grade instrumental value and need to go through a long chain of events before generating pleasure, and is therefore likely to take long time before generating it.