Do you think you're owed anything in this life?

I think that I, and all other humans owe it the human race to leave a positive influence in our lifetime.
 
athenian200 said:
It seems as though if there's no justice, a person could fight for the rest of their lives, achieve nothing, and it would be acceptable because no matter what they do, they're owed nothing.
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Unfortunately, that happens a lot, usually in less fortunate societies. I would think there is a lot stronger faith in those societies as well, hoping for divine justice.

Then again, you can ask what counts as achievement?
 
basic said:
I think that I, and all other humans owe it the human race to leave a positive influence in our lifetime.
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What about the rest of life? Do we not owe that anything? What if a better species could come about after us that was smarter and much better able to respect the world?
 
interesting responses . . .
 
NeverAmI said:
What about the rest of life? Do we not owe that anything? What if a better species could come about after us that was smarter and much better able to respect the world?
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I owe what I can achieve. Once I am dead I can no longer owe anything. Also, in the end we only owe ourselves.

There's no such thing as a better species, because to what would it be "better?" A "better" species would not matter to our species.
 
NeverAmI said:
Unfortunately, that happens a lot, usually in less fortunate societies. I would think there is a lot stronger faith in those societies as well, hoping for divine justice.
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Yes, I never said that it didn't happen. I just said that it wasn't okay. Clearly if they're going insane looking for justice from a higher being because they can't get it on Earth, it implies that they're aware of deserving something that they're not getting.

I suppose I should clarify.

People are NOT guaranteed anything other than death. People are NOT guaranteed justice.

However, I feel that people deserve justice, not by virtue of anything they've accomplished, but because they have an inherent right to it as human beings. The fact that they don't receive it, doesn't mean that they don't deserve it.

Now, what gives them the right to justice? If we say it's life, then it applies to all human beings. If we say that life doesn't give a person the right to justice... then something else does. Society, maybe? By that logic, people living in corrupt societies are not being treated unjustly. They just don't have a right to justice in the first place, and are thus simply irrelevant. It means that there are no such things as "human rights" to be violated in the first place.

I must say, it seems like much of this argument started because I assumed that owed was synonymous with "deserved," while everyone else assumed it was synonymous with "guaranteed."
 
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I think the usual argument for deserving to be free of injustice is suffering. Hence why the current conditions of livestock is acceptable because they don't 'suffer,' or aren't capable of suffering.

I would be inclined to think that suffering is guaranteed to some extent, no matter what form of life you are.

I think life in general deserves a lot more than it is currently getting in the way of allowing it to survive. Of course, if given the proper conditions it will flourish, and if one type flourishes, typically another type suffers.


To me, human rights seem trivial at times compared to how much waste and turmoil we, as a species, inflict on everything else.
 
athenian200 said:
However, I feel that people deserve justice, not by virtue of anything they've accomplished, but because they have an inherent right to it as human beings. The fact that they don't receive it, doesn't mean that they don't deserve it.


I must say, it seems like much of this argument started because I assumed that owed was synonymous with "deserved," while everyone else assumed it was synonymous with "guaranteed."
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yeah, i think there is a difference of opinion in the definition of these terms. I see the word "owed" a little differently than "deserved" or "guaranteed". But i'd like to leave the discussion open so i won't post definitions of each.

But i agree that deserved is not the same as guaranteed. Deserved suggests that there is an innate right to have something, while guaranteed suggests that it is a given product and must be conferred rather than earned.
 
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In terms of life in general, it doesn't owe me a damn thing. In terms of the society that I was (fortunate enough to be) born into, I agree with athenian200 in that I believe I am entitled to the rights that are sanctified by the social contract I both belong to and adhere. These include justice.

Whether or not any of that is truly ever guaranteed is an entirely different philosophical bag of tricks altogether.
 
Life owes me nothing. Without society there would be no injustice. I don't think you can call nature unjust, but we've separated ourselves from it so much that it appears foreign to us. When a hawk eats a rabbit no one says the rabbit was treated unjustly; it's just an expected part of the rabbit's and the hawk's life. If I lived in the middle of the woods and a pack of wolves stole the deer I hade killed to eat, that is not injustice, that's life.

Life hardly owes us justice. The problem is we've separated ourselves so much from the natural world and live in this human society that seems completely out of sync with the workings of "nature" or the "wild" (that we supposedly aren't always part of) We've created society, we as a species have created all of the opportunities to hurt one another, and we think we aren't governed by the rules of life. If a bear fights and kills another bear, it's nature, not injustice. If a man kills another man it's unjust. Justice is a man-made thing and life does not owe it to us. In society we are, as TDHT said, entitled to such things as justice, but it's hardly owed to us in life in general.
 
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I don't feel like I am owed anything. Never have, never will. Any thought that I have that makes me feel like I am owed something I quickly push out of my mind.
 
Yes, but I'm having a hard time finding whoever is accountable in order to make them give it to me.
 
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
 
Anita said:
Do you think you're owed anything in this life?



What, and why?




If no, why not?
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whatever i've been owed i've received it all and then some. now all i feel is a debt, not only to other people, but to life itself. it's a good kind of debt though, there's no obligation... it's like i'd be showing my respect to the earth and to humanity by giving back, and i know i would die happy if i'm able to return even a fraction of the gifts i've been given..
 
I am owed a steak dinner.
 
Gaze said:
Do you think you're owed anything in this life?
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No. That's why I am so eager on securing financial stability and power for myself because I couldn't stand an abusive authority taking control of life away from my family and I.
If no, why not?
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The die is cast.
 
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