Intrinsicism

Intrinsicism is the doctrine that truth or values reside in things independently of any consciousness — that a thing is good or true "in itself", apart from the reasoning of any mind or the life of any beneficiary. Objectivism rejects it, together with its apparent opposite subjectivism, and holds that the two are halves of one false alternative.

“The intrinsic theory holds that the good is inherent in certain things or actions as such, regardless of their context and consequences.”
~ Ayn Rand, "What Is Capitalism?", Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

The false dichotomy

Philosophy has traditionally offered two accounts of where truth and value come from, and treated them as exhaustive:

Intrinsicism — they are in the object. A thing is good in itself; a truth is a fact revealed to a passive mind. Knowing consists of receiving, and if a mind has to do anything to reach a conclusion, that activity is a source of distortion.
Subjectivism — they are in the subject. A thing is good because someone wants it; a truth is a construct. Since the mind is active, its products cannot correspond to anything real.

Both share a premise, which is what makes them a pair rather than genuine alternatives: that a mind's activity in reaching a conclusion is incompatible with that conclusion being about reality. Grant it, and you must choose between a mind that does nothing and a mind that connects to nothing.

Objectivism denies the premise. Consciousness has an identity — a specific means of grasping reality — and a conclusion is objective precisely because it was reached by a valid method applied to real evidence. See Objectivity and Reason.

What intrinsicism looks like in practice

Revealed morality. "Without the supreme authority of God, there is no morality." The good is decreed, requires no justification in terms of anyone's life, and is not open to question. See Mysticism and Faith.
Duty ethics. An action is right in itself, irrespective of consequences, context or beneficiary. Rand treated Kant's categorical imperative as the paradigm case; see Is-Ought Dichotomy.
Intrinsic value in economics. The notion that a good has a "true price" or that labour confers value on a product independently of anyone who wants it.
Platonic realism about concepts. Universals as a separate order of existence that particulars imperfectly copy; see Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology and Realism.
Dogmatism. Since an intrinsic truth needs no derivation, an intrinsicist has nothing to offer in its defence except assertion and, when that fails, force. Rand's observation was that intrinsicism and subjectivism converge here: neither can settle a disagreement by argument.

A related consequence is the treatment of thought itself as culpable. If evil is intrinsic to certain ideas, then entertaining one is already a sin, and the distinction between a thought and an act disappears.

Value requires a valuer

The Objectivist answer runs through the concept of value itself. "Value" is that which one acts to gain or keep, which means the concept is meaningless without an entity that faces an alternative and can act. Nothing can be good or bad for a rock. See Value and Life.

A value is therefore a relationship: good for whom and for what. This is neither intrinsic — because it depends on the nature and circumstances of the valuer — nor subjective — because, given that valuer, whether a thing serves his life is a matter of fact. See Context and Egoism.

Common misunderstandings

That Objectivism is a compromise between the two. Rand explicitly rejected both as a package. The objective theory is not a midpoint but a different account of what knowing and valuing are.
That rejecting intrinsic value makes values arbitrary. The standard is man's life, which is a fact about a kind of entity, not a preference. See Ethics.
That absolutes require intrinsicism. Objectivism holds that principles are absolute and contextual at once: absolute within the conditions that give rise to them, which is not the same as floating free of all conditions.
That it is only a religious error. Secular versions are common — intrinsic value in nature invoked by environmentalism, intrinsic worth in labour, or duty detached from any beneficiary.

Discussion

References

Rand, Ayn. "What Is Capitalism?", Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal — the intrinsic, subjective and objective theories of value.
Rand, Ayn. "Causality Versus Duty", Philosophy: Who Needs It.
Peikoff, Leonard. Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, chapter 4.