The Value of Life 223determines the value of a human being by comparing what
duty requires with how he or she fulfilled it. It measures
people by a yardstick that lies outside their own being.
The view developed here returns us to ourselves. It rec-
ognizes as the true value of life only what we individually
regard as such according to the measure of what we want.
It knows of no value in life that is not recognized by the
individual, just as it knows of no life goal that does not
spring from the individual. It sees our own master and our
own assessor in the essential individuality of each of us,
seen into from all sides.
Addendum to the new edition (1918)If one clings to the apparent objection that human will-
ing, as such, is irrational and that we must show people
this—so that they will see that the goal of ethical striving
lies ultimately in liberation from human willing—then
what has been presented in this chapter can be misunder-
stood. Just such an apparent objection was raised to me
by a competent critic, who said that it is the business of
a philosopher to consider what the thoughtlessness of
beasts and most people neglects—namely, to draw up the
real balance sheet of life. But whoever raises this objec-
tion fails to see the main point. If freedom is to be real-
ized, then the willing within human nature must be
sustained by intuitive thinking. At the same time, certain-
ly, willing can be determined by other things than intui-
tions; yet morality and moral value come about only in
the free realization of intuition flowing from the human