Yet what quality or characteristic accords intrinsic value to human beings and not to hammers — and what other types of beings share this characteristic? Claims about intrinsic value turn out to be mere resting places along the path of a longer argument, for advocates of intrinsic value must then specify the characteristics that form the basis of intrinsic value. Some philosophers, like Immanuel Kant, have maintained that rationality is the foundation of intrinsic value; thus any being possessing rationality would merit moral respect. More recently, Kenneth Goodpaster and others have argued that being alive should be our criterion of moral considerability and that all living beings have intrinsic value.At least one philosopher has maintained that the only nonarbitrary criterion of moral considerability and intrinsic value is “being in existence.”On this view, everything that exists would have intrinsic value.