Quote:
Originally Posted by HazelGirl
So, some questions for all, based on things that have come up.
If you believe all humans have worth no matter what:
1. How do you punish a human? How much is too much?
2. Why do all humans have worth? Where does it come from?
3. Is that worth tied to anything they do?
4. Do some humans have more worth than others? How do you determine if they ?
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Thanks Hazel for this great thread, it's so fascinating! I believe all humans have worth, so for these questions:
1. I think people should be punished by being removed from society so they don't cause more harm. Removing freedoms and comforts we take for granted is another punishment, but that is always relative depending on the person. To a person with a conscience, living with with nothing but the memories of the things they've done can be the worst form of punishment. There isn't much you can do to change a sociopath (I guess the people most would consider "evil"), so you can only remove them from society.
2. Being a human in of itself is what gives us value, in my opinion. Philosophically I don't believe what you do or don't do determines your inherent worth, at least not at the basic level, but that's purely philosophical and not emotional. So I do think the concept of one's value is relative and can change. For example if I were in a position where a loved one were being attacked and I had the opportunity to harm the attacker to save my child's life, that attacker would quickly lose some value.
3. No- I don't think value is based on anything they have or haven't done at the base level. But like in the example in #2, there are events that for me can change this.
4. No one- I don't think one human life is worth more than another, at least not at the basic level. Like I said, there may be extreme circumstances, such as in a matter of survival, where one person may have more value than another. In the broader sense however, I feel that to be human is to have value.