Is human life te most valuable?

For philosophical reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic. How can philosophy help us to understand it, to combat it and to survive it?

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Jori
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Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2021 3:58 am

Is human life te most valuable?

Post by Jori »

We value human life, but sometimes, other things are more important than human life. For some people, duty, honor, principles, faith, glory, thrill, country and the common good are worth dying for. In this pandemic, maybe some things are more important than life, like working, going out, socializing, doing something meaningful, enjoying life, reviving the economy.

The stoics do not regard death as bad. For them, death is an indifferent - meaning not good nor bad. They accept and even embrace death as part of nature. Similarly, Taoist philosophy embraces naturalness and non- coercion.

Because some things are more important than life, death is not bad, and lockdowns are unsustainable, maybe we should open the economy and society, like in Sweden, even if the virus spread. I don't know What do you think?

Two challenges I forsee are how do we dispose of the dead bodies, and who will take care of orphaned children.
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Lacewing
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Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2015 2:25 am

Re: Is human life te most valuable?

Post by Lacewing »

Jori wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 5:44 am Because some things are more important than life, death is not bad, and lockdowns are unsustainable, maybe we should open the economy and society, like in Sweden, even if the virus spread. I don't know What do you think?
Well, you seem to have concluded some things here that do not apply to everyone, of course. For people who consider their life, or the lives of their loved ones, most valuable, and who want to be protected from contagious disease, it seems a little barbaric to just let infection run wild. Even past civilizations have attempted to control and limit exposure to contagious disease. There were fewer people then... who, unlike us, weren't so dependent on the bountiful content and structure of their lives. 8) But our world is so diverse now. Perhaps it would be easier to manage if everyone cared about the same things, or if people were affected in the same ways. How do we simultaneously protect lives, health, jobs, income, education? And how secure or reversible can any of it be if lives and livelihoods are continually being lost and disrupted?

So, wondering... what might the causes of extinction of our civilization look like, and how do we prevent what past civilizations couldn't prevent for themselves? The things we are dependent on can be our undoing -- and our civilization is dependent on a lot. We also think we can control and fix everything -- but there are all sorts of things that can shut us down.
AlexPhilip
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Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2021 9:16 pm

Re: Is human life te most valuable?

Post by AlexPhilip »

A few arguments I quickly came up with:

(1) I consider my life valuable. The easiest way to propagate this idea is by saying all human life is valuable.

(2) Subjectively I consider myself most valuable. So does everyone else (consider themselves valuable, that is. Not everyone knows how valuable I am). Therefore to say that some lives are valuable and others aren't is saying my opinion is superior to theirs, which is pretty hard to justify as the only real argument is "well, you're not me".*

(3) 'Value' could be considered a verbal placeholder for some intrinsic emotional or evolved feeling of attachment to humans. (When people say a human life is valuable, it seems to have a different meaning to saying some particular object or skill is valuable.)

Of course, you could avoid this by saying no life is valuable, including yours.
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