End in itself

Okay kiddo, so "end in itself" means that something is valuable just because of what it is, not because of what it can do for you or what it can get you.

Think of a toy, like a teddy bear. You might want a teddy bear to play with, but the teddy bear is also valuable just because it exists. It doesn't have to do anything special or be useful in any particular way to be important.

The same thing goes for things like art or music. They're valuable because they're beautiful or meaningful, not because they do anything for us.

Does that make sense? Sometimes things are just valuable in and of themselves, without needing to do anything extra.