ULTIMATE VALUES, 2022

“LIFE MATTERS” is a simplified form of an observation from the ancient Greek philosophers. They believed that when it comes to establishing ultimate values, nothing ranks higher than life itself. The Greeks identified five ultimate values: “Truth,” “Good,” “Justice,” “Beauty,” and eudaemonia (an untranslatable word that loosely means “human flourishing” or “contentment with one’s life as it is actually lived.” The English word “happiness” is often used for it.)

According to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, all other human values are indirectly derived from these five ultimate values. However, they also observed that all these values are meaningless without a living, breathing human subject to evaluate and appreciate them. A lifeless universe with no human beings would be a universe with nothing of value, because there would be no one to make such a determination. Things would merely exist without any consideration of good or bad. Hence, it follows that life itself holds the highest value, because without life, there is no value whatsoever. In other words, life is the precondition for all values. That is why “life matters.” Either it does matter, or nothing does-you can’t have it both ways.