X-Message-Number: 16930
Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2001 20:16:30 -0500
From: david pizer <>
Subject: Argument that life has inherent value

I have been trying to argue that life has inherent value.  So far, I havn't
been able to do it very well.  I would like to have a strong argument that
life does have inherent value so that when the Venturists begin to debate
the status quo for the rights of frozen beings in the near future, our
arguments will be on strong ground.  If some of our opinions cannot be
backed up, we will have to refrain from that area.  So after some advise
from others on this forum, I have put the following argument together.  Any
criticisms on this will be appreciated.

Dave Pizer
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Argument that life has inherent value    

1.	The concept of value comes from what living beings will pay for
something.  How much one being is willing to give in order to get something
he wants is a way to think of the value of that thing.  What a being is
willing to pay for something depends on how much he desires that thing.  So
indirectly, desire is what actually sets the value of something.

2.	In order to desire something, the thing doing the desiring must be alive
- it must be a living being.  So value, the end of desire, is dependent on
life.  Only living things (living beings) can give value to something else.

3.	In order for any first thing to give something to a second thing, the
first thing must first have it to give.  So if only living things can give
value, then living things must have value.

4.	Desire can only come from, (and so must be in), living beings.  So when
living things desire something, that desire must be inherent in the living
things.  If desire in living things is what gives value to other things,
and that desire is inherent in the living thing, then living things, or
life, has inherent value in it.  Or to say it another way: If an object
gives something value, that object must have value in it as a quality to give.

Example: For me to love my dog, I must first have love in me.  For me to
value my dog, I must first have value in me. 

5.	Put another way, if a living being has some quality, that quality is a
part of what makes that being what it is.

6.	If life gives value to life, than one of the parts of life is value.
Put another way, value cannot exist without life, so value is life and life
is value.

7.	If value is only relative, then saying life being valuable relative to
life is the same as saying life has worth relative to life.  Anything that
is relative to itself is an unconditional part of itself and therefore has
"inherentness".

8.	THEREFORE, anyway you look at it, life is value and value is life - and
life has inherent value.

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