If the relation is what is non-instrumentally good, then the thing itself is good only because it is needed to obtain this relation (i.e., only instrumentally good).

Philosophers’ adoption of the term “intrinsic” for this distinction reflects a common theory, according to which whatever is non-instrumentally good must be good in virtue of its intrinsic properties. This idea is supported by a natural argument: if something is good only because it is related to something else, the argument goes, then it must be its relation to the other thing that is non-instrumentally good, and the thing itself is good only because it is needed in order to obtain this relatio