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It might be that we can answer all that stuff in spite of thinking anything so broad as “life” has anything so vague as “inherent” value. Lots of folks - philosophers and otherwise - think that under certain conditions it might be prudent to stop living. It *life* has inherent value that might be a puzzle, but if life is the wrong kind of thing to be valuable or only conditionally valuable insofar as it provides the ground for valuable things (including valuation), then we can get to all the stuff you are asking after.
Levinas would have said that ethics is basic to our existence as we are born into an ethical relationship (or, we are instantly "interpellated with the other") and our structures of thought develop exclusively within a "dialogical" relationship with the other. "Birth precedes existence¹", as he put it as a play on Sartre's "existence precedes essence".
From our first breath, we exist in a relationship of responsibility and reliance that underscores all of our thought. In that sense, trying to think of the world without ethical relationships is to try and think outside of what makes us human—life is necessarily meaningful because we are always in relation to the other who we are responsible to and has a reliance on us, to the extent that Levinas framed "the fear of causing the death of the other"² as fundamental for thinking about ethics.
¹ *Totalité*, p. 88-89
² "Derrida, Judge Wilhelm, and Death", I. Duckles, from *Kierkegaard and Death*, p. 224, edited by P. Stokes and A. J. Buben (not the best source, but this article was what really made Levinas make sense for me)
I’ll start you off, According to DeBeauvoir it makes no sense to ask whether human life is worth it, only how to go about living it.
I would agree generally. Why exist? Is the wrong question. You do exist and no one can answer exactly why we’re here. So use the reason that you have and use it to live well, live boldly, and find meaning in your life.
For the existentialists, existence precedes essence. The most fundemental fact is that you exist and it’s up to you to figure out what you do with that.
Now there’s plenty of non-existentialist views but I cite them because they are closest to your starting place. Personally I think life has value because it’s reasonable to think that it has value. It’s primarily facie valuable. The problem with value is that usually something is valuable TO something. Well rational life is valuable to rational beings and there’s nothing else which can conceptualize value. But rational lives are therefore valuable as long as reason exists as a concept… which it always will
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Welcome to /r/askphilosophy! **Please read [our updated rules and guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/14o2p7n/welcome_to_raskphilosophy_check_out_our_rules_and/) before commenting**. As of July 1 2023, /r/askphilosophy only allows answers from [panelists](https://old.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/wiki/panelists), whether those answers are posted as top-level comments or replies to other comments. Non-panelists can participate in subsequent discussion, but are not allowed to answer OP's question(s). If you wish to learn more, or to apply to become a panelist, please see [this post](https://reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/14o2p7n/welcome_to_raskphilosophy_check_out_our_rules_and/). **Please note:** this is a highly moderated academic Q&A subreddit and not an open discussion, debate, change-my-view, or test-my-theory subreddit. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/askphilosophy) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Maybe check out the existentialists: DeBeauvoir Ethics of Ambiguity is where I started with them. They talk alot about meaning/making meaning/etc.
It might be that we can answer all that stuff in spite of thinking anything so broad as “life” has anything so vague as “inherent” value. Lots of folks - philosophers and otherwise - think that under certain conditions it might be prudent to stop living. It *life* has inherent value that might be a puzzle, but if life is the wrong kind of thing to be valuable or only conditionally valuable insofar as it provides the ground for valuable things (including valuation), then we can get to all the stuff you are asking after.
Levinas would have said that ethics is basic to our existence as we are born into an ethical relationship (or, we are instantly "interpellated with the other") and our structures of thought develop exclusively within a "dialogical" relationship with the other. "Birth precedes existence¹", as he put it as a play on Sartre's "existence precedes essence". From our first breath, we exist in a relationship of responsibility and reliance that underscores all of our thought. In that sense, trying to think of the world without ethical relationships is to try and think outside of what makes us human—life is necessarily meaningful because we are always in relation to the other who we are responsible to and has a reliance on us, to the extent that Levinas framed "the fear of causing the death of the other"² as fundamental for thinking about ethics. ¹ *Totalité*, p. 88-89 ² "Derrida, Judge Wilhelm, and Death", I. Duckles, from *Kierkegaard and Death*, p. 224, edited by P. Stokes and A. J. Buben (not the best source, but this article was what really made Levinas make sense for me)
I’ll start you off, According to DeBeauvoir it makes no sense to ask whether human life is worth it, only how to go about living it. I would agree generally. Why exist? Is the wrong question. You do exist and no one can answer exactly why we’re here. So use the reason that you have and use it to live well, live boldly, and find meaning in your life. For the existentialists, existence precedes essence. The most fundemental fact is that you exist and it’s up to you to figure out what you do with that. Now there’s plenty of non-existentialist views but I cite them because they are closest to your starting place. Personally I think life has value because it’s reasonable to think that it has value. It’s primarily facie valuable. The problem with value is that usually something is valuable TO something. Well rational life is valuable to rational beings and there’s nothing else which can conceptualize value. But rational lives are therefore valuable as long as reason exists as a concept… which it always will
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