You Cannot Value Life as Life Has No Value

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Philosophical View of Value of Life
Religious View of Value of Life
The Holy Quran on the Value of Human Life
Economical View of Value of Life
Seafarers Value of Life
References

Philosophical View of Value of Life

Life is never simple. Rather than anesthetize every discomfort, it makes sense to face the fear and confusion, feel it, and work through it. The moral life is not so much action as thoughtful action, and the moral fruit of action is not “results” but the experience of life. But the introduction of thought into action changes the whole character of the problem. Moral problems are continuing problems, inviting contemplation. The moral results of action are not so many conclusions as new developments of older questions. The moral problem, in short, is the problem of life.

Nietzsche’s initially rather intuitive but lively appreciation of the value of human beings of the sort, it would seem, was what let him attempt to work out a conception and standard of value differing from and superseding those involved in various prevailing modes of evaluation. An important clue to the nature of his thinking along these lines is to be found in his enumeration of what he takes to be “the real achievements of philosophical thinking that one owes to Germans” (but which he argues are by no means attributable to anything specifically “German” about them): he lists ‘Leibniz’s incomparable insight… that consciousness is merely an accident of experience…, Kant’s tremendous question mark that he placed after the concept of “causality”…, the astonishing stroke of Hegel, who…first introduced the decisive concept of “development” into science’ – and then adds ‘Schoppenhauer, to,’ with his discernment of ‘the problem of the value of existence’.

Despite its ancient pedigree and impressive scope, philosophical analysis of the value of life is but one approach among many. Problems cannot wait, and reality requires that they be engaged even if not fully comprehended (Button, 2005).

Religious View of Value of Life

There is no religion in the world that does not encourage valuing one’s life. According to the religious point of view, no matter how miserable one feels his or her life be, one must not end it by themselves. Presenting below is how various religions puts emphasis on life.

The Holy Quran on the Value of Human Life

We prescribed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killed a person – unless it is for killing a person or for creating disorder in the land – it shall be as if he killed all mankind; and whoso saved a life, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind. And our Messengers came to them with Clear Signs, Yet even after that, many of them commit excesses in the land. (Al Quran 5:33)

The Bible says in James 1:12 ” “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”

He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear for I have redeemed you; I have called you by My name, you are Mine… For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior… Because you are precious in My sight, and honored and I love you… everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made. (Isaiah 43,1,3,4,7).

The meaning and the condition of man’s life is to keep with all that it takes, the bond with his Creator Parent as See now that I, even I, am he; there is no god beside me. I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and no one can deliver from my hand. (Deuteronomy 32,39). Only God has all the power as The Lord kills and brings to life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up (I Samuel 2,6).

Economical View of Value of Life

Since the 1940s (when the performance of the economy began to be measured systematically) it has focused on the pursuit of economic growth, striving to increase the flow of traded goods and services. Command of such goods, expressed for convenience in money, provided a clear measure of welfare, both individual and social.

Pervasive destitution worldwide remains a standing reproach to the wealthy and to their satisfaction. Indeed, achieving a just distribution depends to some extent on understanding the driving force of acquisitiveness. It is reasonable to assume that the benefits of material improvement would be felt most strongly by the poor. In conditions of destitution, priorities are clearer and therefore choice, which is what market economies cherish, is less relevant (Dickens, 1990).

By far the most intense program of the value of life research is in the field of illness. The medical ethos of prolonging life regardless of cost has increasingly run against economic resource limitations, and modern therapies often prolong lives of unalleviated suffering. Ray Fitzpatrick’s contribution describes the increasing preoccupation of socio-medical research with these dilemmas. A rapid expansion of studies using the value of life concepts and measures has occurred in medicine and health care over the last twenty years. Applications of the concept vary. They may be used as outcome measures in clinical trials or as population and clinic-based measures of need. The most controversial application has been in the context of resource allocation. Problems of defining and assessing the value of life vary according to the intended use (Link, 1992).

Two contrasting types of evidence are discussed. Individuals who are actually ill provide reports of their value of life which are, on the whole positive and indicate that substantial adjustment to illness occurs. In contrast, ‘utility’ or ‘normative’-type survey studies draw on the evaluations of representative panels of healthy people who are asked to evaluate the desirability or severity of different health states. They produce quite different results, with a much wider range of positive and negative evaluations of the value of life. Fitzpatrick’s essay examines the legitimacy and plausibility of the value of life assessments and the problems that arise from the contrasting judgments of the health-related value of life reported by prior ‘normative’ surveys, and that of patients actually experiencing ill-health (Palfin, 1990).

Value of life, extensively treated by the social indicators movement, is here defined as the value of external conditions, sense of well-being, and the qualities of persons living those lives. Qualities of persons are at the same time elements of the value of life, causes of that value, and consequences of it. Value of life implies the qualities of persons as ‘receptors’ and interpreters of external circumstances, as sources of value, as complements in attributional processes, and as the agents of psychic income. Because governmental policies promoting the value of life fail when they ignore qualities of persons because human development cannot be exclusively a process of self-help, and because there is new knowledge on the processes of learning, governments should promote human development as part of the promotion of a better value of life. But such promotion is opposed by dominant democratic, economic, and philosophical (especially utilitarian) doctrines. The accumulation of goods will fail to provide welfare in the absence of human development.

Seafarers Value of Life

The United States is a major maritime power. Under the United States flag, there are about 1,000 large ocean-going commercial vessels. A third of American water-borne foreign trade in dollar value is carried in American bottoms.

Broadly defined, the industry consists of vessels operating in domestic commerce on the lakes and rivers and along and between the coasts and the off-shore states and territories, as well as vessels in Lake trade with Canada and in the ocean foreign trades.

Life at sea is hard. It always has been. Those of us who live on shore cannot imagine what it is like to fight through the icy North Atlantic and bring your ship to port. Sailors often live and work among these hardships and dangers for months at a time, far from their families and sustained only by camaraderie and a tradition of uncomplaining courage.

Safety of life is one of the clearest and most visible expressions of a company’s attitude to the value of the life of their employee. It is moreover one of the most important dimensions of how seafarers, as individuals and as an employee of a company, demonstrate the value that they place on one another’s lives and display the respect that they believe owe to each other.

In these industrial workplaces, avoiding costly accidents was part of the worker’s skill. Whatever your rank, you learned safety, and, as with other skills, you learned the hard way — by watching and by doing. The result was that accidents were very frequent.

The extent of accident and risk in a ship cannot be calculated precisely. Even ordinary labor took its toll. How can one measure the effectiveness of such work on mental and physical health? And it followed that if seafarers were responsible for their own safety, they might make safety a matter for collective action.

References

K. Button (2005). The economics of cost recovery in transport, Journal of Transport Economics and Policy.

Martin, Gerald D., 1995. Determining Economic Damages, 7th Edition, (Santa Ana, CA: James Publishing).

Knapp, C. L., 1993. Commercial Damages: A Guide to Remedies in Business Litigation, (Matthew Bender).

Link, Albert N., 1992. Evaluating Economic Damages: A Handbook for Attorneys, (Westport, CT: Quorum Books).

Dickens, W.T. 1990. “Assuming the Can Opener: Hedonic Wage Estimates and the Value of Life,” Journal of Forensic Economics, 51-59.

Palfin, Richard A., 1990. Hedonic Damages: Proving Damages for Lost Enjoyment of Living, (Charlottesville, VA: Michie Co.)

Click Here To Order Now!