The Value of Life: Philosophical and Ethical Perspectives

Introduction

What makes life valuable? What does it mean to say that life is precious or worthwhile? How does one define the concept of a life that is 'worth' living? These are the fascinating and challenging questions that we seek to explore here. Clearly, each of us, in all our unique human development and lifelong experiences, brings our own deeply held answer to these questions to testimony every day. It is a question that speaks to, and deeply challenges, our existential core.

Most of us would probably agree that questions of life's value, meaning, and significance allow for a wide range of answers bound to human experience. A life may be valuable because of particular achievements, contribution to the future, satisfaction of simple pleasures, exploration of potential relationships, or application of a particular personal philosophy or ethical understanding of life's rewards and trials.

If we read the above paragraphs and identify with an answer, then we may believe that the life we lead is valuable and significant. By reading these introductory questions, identified as a call to our personal values and likely answered, we plunge deep into an age-old philosophical and ethical reflection of significant human examination. In facing existential complexity, we must extend our examination of the value of life to an exploration of broader human perspectives, exploring dimensions other than the individual. Given this, it is reasonable to believe that the value of life transcends any single characteristic belief or personal circumstance and must be regarded from a variety of empirical, professional, demographic, and ethical philosophies or principles.

Philosophical Theories

It is well established within the field of moral philosophy and metaethics that the value of life can be understood in a variety of ways. Most of these theories either base the value of life on some property of life or hold that the value of life is determined by extrinsic facts. Utilitarianism treats happiness or sensible pleasures as the greatest intrinsic good. Deontological ethics hold that duty often trumps desire and promotes the notion of life’s sanctity or inviolability as a good due to ordinary persons in virtue of our human nature or rationality. Intuitionism asserts that various value ideals should maintain “priority” and does not strictly operate from ethically general principles. Virtue theory holds that at least some good intrinsic to life can arise from the pursuit of the good life in the form of a certain character disposition.

Intrinsic values refer to intrinsic goods, or states that are good in themselves apart from their consequences, while extrinsic values refer to states that are good as means or conditions. The different philosophical theories can agree on how some states are valued, but disagree on which goods are intrinsically good and which are in fact intrinsic and not mere means. There are numerous ways in which philosophers have attempted to articulate the value of humankind without getting bogged down in fundamental metaphysical controversies. Some theorists have associated the value of life with the capacity for personhood or autonomy—the freedom and authority to choose one’s own path in life. Others have suggested that there might be a basis in the dignity of human life well-suited to the idea of human rights to which all are entitled. Some take ordinary lives to be of neutral intrinsic value with alternatives a mix of good and bad. Yet, others speak the language of a “good life” and argue that many people find their own and others’ lives intrinsically satisfying or fulfilling.

Ethical Considerations and Dilemmas

Discussions on the value of life come rife with several ethical considerations. For one, we often find ourselves pondering if there is a particular point, or a set of criteria, at which we can demarcate the worth of life, and if it is okay for one life to be considered more or less valuable than another. Another dilemma also prevails: when life seems to lose its meaning, is it an individual’s right or society's prerogative to decide if such a life continues to persist? While the first category suppresses struggles spanning from the existential to the social, the second attempts to delve into the intricacies of end-of-life dilemmas. Various shades of human life concerning the belief in the worth of life are highlighted when considering the considerable social debates surrounding euthanasia, capital punishment, and issues of policy concerning resource distribution in healthcare.

Should one distinguish, for example, among potentialities, accomplishments, and being-in-the-world, life in any of these states ought to be considered a plausible demarcation for one form of life’s worth. The second-level issues branch out from the broader one in how our intuitions in these constraints place limitations based on personal preference, but more importantly, contextual deontological morality shaped by the contract. The eclectic mixture of such ethical paradigms creates tension amidst the absoluteness of individual rights and the innate conditional action of the ‘communal responsibilities’ theory. Numerous instances of case studies in real life, grounded in the communal responsibility approach, allow pivotal lessons in this context-driven reasoning on the significance and worth of life.

Cultural and Religious Perspectives

Many cultural traditions hold valuable insights into what makes life worthwhile. Religious perspectives consider not only belief in God or a divinely intended purpose, but also the moral imperative to ensure an ethical regard for the lives of others. In Chinese traditions, Confucian values revolve around the significance of social harmony and interconnectedness. Life is valuable and therefore should be prolonged in order to nurture ties between members of a community. Jews too emphasize the sanctity of life and the need to protect and guard it, as did the Egyptians who interred the dead along with venerated objects. For some cultures, death is deprecated: the vehicle of disease, chaos, and disorder, as in traditional Zoroastrian thought where death was regarded as the final insult to the essence of life, the desecration of all that was pure and holy created by the Creator, and to be worshipped in material form.

An individual’s perception of what life means or could mean is greatly influenced by their religious belief system. Ethical, moral, and cultural imperatives strongly underpin views about the value of life. Many of the world’s great religions extend the question of life’s worth into discussions about respect, reverence, protection, as well as love or compassion for what is seen as 'creation' in its secular understanding. Some strands of Islam or Christianity teach that humans have dominion over the natural world, whereas Australian Indigenous people discuss sacred sites using a similar term. However, there is more continuity between secular and religious assertions about the necessity to guard against species extinction by protecting the habitat.

Understanding the Value of Life

Insights from philosophy and ethics can offer practical guidance in important areas of public policy and in considerations about the expenditure of public resources. They can also assist us in decisions about health care, human reproduction, medical research, and end-of-life care. They can also influence such things as our thinking about criminal justice, penal policy, international relations, social justice, and other matters about which you are probably already disagreeing with your neighbor. In fact, the implications of evaluating the value of life have very broad significance indeed. Knowing the theory of value will influence what you do in your life – not just what you think. It is an important thing to work out what your own judgment about the value of life is and what you should do with this judgment.

Knowing who and what you value and why you value them will be relevant to your personal happiness and mental health. An understanding of the value of your own life can affect the choices that you make regarding your life direction, your health, and well-being. How can and should we act with a detailed understanding of the probable consequences of our actions on human society and the environment in which it is embedded? This question has emerged as one of the most profound ethical questions of a time in which the sciences of ecology and climatology are asking us to reflect upon the relation of the human species with the entire living biosphere of this planet. The discoveries of modern environmentalist thinking may now bring about a profound alteration in the human conception of the value of life. In any case, the profound nature of these contemporary challenges and the values they may engender offer fresh reason for opening up our discussion of the value of life. And indeed, we may need to discuss life in new ways in light of new circumstances created by this technology in order to make life anew – and to make new lives in the future.

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