Own little koan

What is one's own value?

A person may be intelligent. But that's not what their value resides in.

Say one has a car accident, the way Landau did, and loses most of what makes them clever.

Would they then stop being valuable?

A person may be able to sing, sort of.

But say they had throat cancer and would have to have their vocal chords removed.

Would they then stop being valuable?

We can go through these things one by one. All the various 'predicates' might make one contingently valuable, but none will make them intrinsically so.

Love Kant's dictum, "Always treat every human being as an end in themselves, rather than just a means to an end". Love it, it's great, find it beautiful and believe in it. The lowliest beggar, the most diseased human being, even the sickest mind (and therein lies a challenge! Very Christian: love thy neighbour - but will you love Hitler? A Mafia boss? The man/woman who kills your mother/rapes your sister?) - they are all values in themselves, regardless of anything else.

But lovely as it is to believe it about others, personally I cannot believe it about myself.

Why should I be an end in itself?

That is the koan.

I can only be valuable because of the things that make up 'me'. And at the same time, there's no way any of them can make 'me' valuable, however valuable they are in themselves.

Answers:

The thing that is valuable is the very thing that is really 'me'. The point of consciousness, this very spot of light in the darkness, this particular point of view located physically right here.

But why should that be so?

Yes, cogito ergo sum, hence that point of consciousness is the only thing that really is me. That is the only thing that is my personal identity.

But what is that to do with value?

Nothing. An ought cannot be derived from an is, and value cannot be derived from fact. The fact that 'I' exist does not make 'I' valuable.

Or: the point is to realise that there is no 'I', and hence the question of value does not arise.

You'll be truly liberated and happy when you finally understand that there is nothing threatening your value, because there is no 'you' that might or might not be valuable.

That is, the 'no ego' anwser, approached from very different points and with very different meanings by both Buddha and Hume

Nice as an idea, but though one can appreciate the aesthetic value of the answer, it does not satisfy the hunger, it does not quench the thirst.

When there's nothing challenging me, I can happily entertain the idea that I am egoless. The moment 'I' come in doubt, for whatever reason, the defensive walls come up around the ego that allegedly does not exist.

Perhaps it's one of those superficially banal and easy statements that can only really be understood properly - beyond reason - through a very difficult process. (Very Zen, very much the koan.) Maybe so. But then not really very much help in the here and now. (Well, Enlightenment does take years, after all.)

Another answer: paradoxically, the only thing that gives value to 'I' is 'I'. Regardless of whatever I do, regardless of whatever I can do, regardless of whatever impact my actions have on the being, thinking and feeling of others, I am valuable as long as I appreciate myself.

But that is like a mirror reflecting itself.

The mirror cannot do so, it can only reflect other things.

What is my value, when all contingent characteristics and states of affairs are stripped away?

What does a mirror reflect, when it's not reflecting anything?

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

If a tree falls in the forest and there's nobody to hear it, does it make a sound?

The same question, at bottom. Perhaps.

Years of fun ahead.

P. S. Why am I writing this? In the futile hope that by doing so, I am creating something at least a tiny little bit valuable, which makes me a tiny little bit valuable, too.
Imagine.