Literary notes about Intrinsic (AI summary)
In literature, “intrinsic” is employed to emphasize the inherent, self-contained qualities of objects, actions, or ideas, setting them apart from external influences. Authors use it to draw attention to internal value or essence—for example, the inherent pleasure derived from coffee is described as an intrinsic quality [1], while actions are sometimes said to have aims that are intrinsic, forming part of their very nature [2]. In discussions of belief, beauty, or ethical worth, intrinsic properties are highlighted as fundamental and unchangeable, independent of context [3, 4, 5]. This term also appears in debates over whether certain characteristics are essential or simply the result of external conditions [6]. Thus, across various texts, “intrinsic” serves as a powerful adjective to signal that the worth or nature of something comes from within itself rather than from any auxiliary factors.
- The intrinsic desirability of coffee—the actual pleasure to be derived from the act of partaking of it. 2.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - But the end should be intrinsic to the action; it should be its end—a part of its own course.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - It is the intrinsic nature of belief that will concern us to-day.
— from The Analysis of Mind by Bertrand Russell - Even the poem in question cannot be pronounced entirely original, though its intrinsic beauty is unquestionable.
— from Eugene Oneguine [Onegin] by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin - Piety, on the contrary, esteems things apart from their intrinsic worth, on account of their relation to the agent's person and fortune.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - The truth or falsehood of a belief does not depend upon anything intrinsic to the belief, but upon the nature of its relation to its objective.
— from The Analysis of Mind by Bertrand Russell
