is it because we think ? is the life of a person dieing of starvation in some third world country as valuable and priceless as Bill Gates ? if so why ?
from a philosphical standpoint and logic ( no "because God..." answers plz )
2007-02-03 22:57:08 · 20 answers · asked by igottanoe 3 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Complete idiot : i would really appreciate it if you would come back and add more when the thoughts flow to you
2007-02-03 23:04:20 · update #1
we are precious because we can appreciate beauty, and we can experience very complex emotion. your question is deep and deserves a deep answer but I don't feel up to the task. I guess I can add that we are not all equally precious.
2007-02-03 23:01:36 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Life is a chance to go back to god (breaking the cycle of birth and death). It really does not matter If the life is of a person dieing of starvation in some third world country as valuable and priceless as Bill Gates. the Goal If achieved, what can be better than that!!!
2007-02-04 07:13:40 · answer #2 · answered by mr.kotiankar 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It sounds like an anthropocentric question; I would re-phrase it as, perhaps, "What makes humans different from animals, or from each other?" The description of "precious" is subjective.
All that being said, characteristics that make some people more valuable than others could have to do with social value. What does the person contribute to society? The person could be in a position to make a difference to others, whether through their employment or personal contact with people.
As for what makes humans more precious than animals, to humans, I'm sure it's the same thing that makes elephants more special than humans, to elephants; which is to say, humans think humans are precious because they are humans. So that's not saying much.
Now, what makes us different is quite something else, and a big topic to start on here.
2007-02-04 09:32:08 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
using Kant - it is our reason which makes us special and sets us apart.
apart from that im stuck - maybe because we think we are special because we are more sophisticated than most other living organisms in the world.
everyones life is precious - ranking how precious each life is near impossible as everyone has the same basic right to life; and who is to say that if that starving child had been brought up in a richer family with food etc that he/she too would not be rich and clever like Bill Gates? its not fair to compare as its all about circumstance and pretty much where you were born.
2007-02-11 13:24:40 · answer #4 · answered by coy carp 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Logic won't be much use in defining a subjective term (precious). Human life may not absolutely have inherent "preciousness", but our experience that death ends the quantity of life leads us to perceive it as valuable because of the time limitation. We then add conditions on how it should be lived in order to increase the perceived value over the limited time.
2007-02-04 07:18:23 · answer #5 · answered by pixilatedpi 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ideally we are all equal. But in reality the facts speak for themselves.
the lives of " Others " is worth a lot less than those who call the shots.
Arab - Jew.
White - Black
The nature of man proffesses equality, but practises segregation while manipulating the rule book .
Sadly the full potential of man is buried somewhere beneath a falseness of values.....for life is precious to every child borne not just the white ones etc
2007-02-10 16:01:14 · answer #6 · answered by tillermantony 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Human life is considered precious because we are taught to believe it is. People are scared of the unknown that is death so the cling to life. I believe that death is an ulitmate end. There is no afterlife. If this is so, then when I die, everything I have done, everything I was, becomes meaningless. How can something meaningless be precious?
2007-02-11 17:25:04 · answer #7 · answered by Bob 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Human life is equally precious, in my view.
The reason it is considered so precious is because of our most basic form of empathy. Virtually everyone on Earth has a deep desire to live. We project this desire on everyone else and assume (probably rightly) that they have the same desire.
Now the question is, why do we all have this desire to live? Is it the biological need to leave offspring behind? Is it God pushing us forwards? Is it both?
2007-02-04 23:51:18 · answer #8 · answered by fishermaniac 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well from a philosophical point of view all men are physiologically created equal. We as human beings are precious because there is no other species like us. Other species cannot share our views or dreams or passions, or our sense of adventure (man I love that line). It is because of our uniqueness and awareness of who we are and that we are here that gives us reason to want to survive.
2007-02-12 01:52:29 · answer #9 · answered by Uncle Remus 54 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Self- awareness !
With this , if a person consciously chooses to evolve, then he can possibly cross the physical barrier, the sensory level of perception, and establish oneself into peaks of consciousness levels, which is the highest possibility for any being, and only as a human being.
2007-02-04 09:28:00 · answer #10 · answered by Spiritualseeker 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋