What I'm saying is that it isn't the 'we' it's just the 'someone'. The slave boy's owners probably afix a monetary value on his life, and probably (though it's not always the case) the slave boy would place value on his life. I do not know he exists, therefore, I can't ascribe any value to him... he's just a hypothetical to me.deer of the dawn wrote: What you are saying, O, is that human life, or perhaps more accurately a human life only has what value we ascribe to it. Does it follow that lives no one values have no value? I'm not talking about thugs, what about the slave boy in the Sudan whose name everyone has forgotten unless they think they need something from him?
It's really not that different from what you believe. You believe a 'god' finds humans valuable. To it, then, human life has some value. But that doesn't mean the humans themselves share or ought to share that same concept of value. It's a completely different ball game between the two. As a silly example, if god valued human life highly because it was necessary ammunition for his human soul powered ray gun aimed at another universe, we may decide not to share its idea of value.