secular views on the nature and value of human life

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  • SECULAR VIEWS NATURE AND VALUE
    • Evolution theory, we are highly developed apes.
    • There is no supernatural element to us
    • Bentham perceives all life as a commodity - expandable for the greatest good.
    • RICHARD DAWKINS
      • our brains define us and give us value, this is closely associated with how we live, choices we make
      • humans are instrumentally valuable we earn our value through develipedcharacter
    • JOHN STUART MILL
      • Humans are more valuable than animals due to our ability of accessing higher pleasures
      • It is wrong to inflict harm on another person as an attempt to maximise utility
      • both Mill and Kant are guilty of speciesism, as they fail to recognise personhood qualities in dolphins or chimps
    • SINGER
      • Our values as humans come from our having personhood qualities and it is quite possible that a chimpanzee is regarded more valuable than a toddler / disabled person
      • identifies a distinction between being human and being a person
    • ARISTOTLE
      • we shape our own character,become what we practice
      • intellectual and moral virtues should be exercised when we make decisions
      • defined "good" in terms of fulfilling potential a good human is one who has fulfilled potential
      • humans are more than that of animals as they have the ability of animals and more, this is because humans have the ability to think and act morally, grow, use energy, reproducing, reasoning and using language.If a human lacks these qualities than they are seen as less than an animal and are known as being in a vegetive state.
      • Humans = rational animals and fulfilling potential has something to do with how we decide for ourself (free will) and make decisions
      • The aim of humans was to reach the state of happiness bought about through being virtuous
        • being a good human is being a virtuous human
    • KANT
      • humans cannot be exploited or maltreated
      • human rights are rooted in human value
      • ability to reason defines us as humans, the is what gives us value
      • treating another person as a means to an end is wrong as you are failing to recognise the worth of the person
    • JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
      • nothing links us together as humans, we are completely free
        • become what we are by how we live, in charge of sculpting what we are, entirely responsible for the person we become
      • Nature is closely tied in with our character and our character gives us value
      • There is no God, no such thing as human nature
      • some people have more value than others and this has led in the past to justification of slavery and segregated societies which have now been violated by human rights
      • I am living in bad faith if i delude myself that there us any other purpose or meaning to my existence
        • it is the obscurity of the human condition that we must live and strive to meet standard we impose on ourselves

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