Nothing is left when humans are not humans

As a policy debater, I am often faced with a critical (or shall I say kritikal) perspective on human value. In many cases, I am forced to place lives on a weight opposite from money or some other resource. But human value can never be defined, but only determined, by humankind, the paradox of human's quest for self-worth. To even get a glimpse of this value, it is imperative to strip back the extra layers society has provided to understand the inability to define human value, before realizing the true nature of human value, that we can determine it.
Human value is an area human beings cannot explore. But to even begin, humans must first put themselves in perspective. As Descartes explained, nothing is certain except for one's existence. It is not only within the nature of understanding, but that of existence, that humans can only know themselves before others. Knowing only one value, as understood by math, puts one number at both the top and the bottom. In order to first establish the line that defines human value as the most basic, linear idea, another point on this endless map must be established. For many people around the world, this is nature. It is universal, as Annie Dillard wrote in her Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Nature's universal understanding is an easy way of allowing all people around the world to know but one fact: that they are insignificant. But this is only when considering that they are the extreme. The main point, however, is that nature, the absence of human presence, is where this line can be made. Thus, experience outside of humanity must be the first step.
The next step is understanding how humans can determine, but not define value. The problem with the nature to human graph is that humans must place themselves on the minor extreme of a linear function. Inevitably, this must mean 0 when nature is 100 percent. Nonetheless, humanity cannot be a simple 0 because we must be certain of human value. The television program Heroes explores, quite explicitly, the quest to finding purpose on Earth. The people who have powers explore life both within and without society. Within society, many are able to establish their own value compared to others, but this demands the inevitably flawed perspective of human society. Then, in the collected analysis of critical legal studies, one scholar remarked that even if society were destroyed, that would not be true nihilism, the skepticism of personal value. Rather, one would wake up in a new society because above all else, "we are not nothing" [CLS]. Human value is simply made by human will to live.
Thus the greatest fear in today's society must thus be existential nihilism. Humans, by being themselves, survive only as long as their willpower, which is completely dependent on acknowledging self worth. In many ways, by seeing themselves as a 0 on a two-point line, many humans will see it necessary to eliminate themselves just to avoid division by zero. But this is the problem with placing human value on a scale. Nihilism destroys the first idea of human value, and thus the rest. It is this suicidal school of thought that noble institutions such as Postsecret hope to fight. By creating a community of support and self-definition, Frank Warren has fought tirelessly against this mindset that leads many human individuals to suicide. The success of the Postsecret program, in turn, gives value to both the people who needed to use it and Frank, who has made an impact on the world around him.
Once again I shall present the paradox-that human value can not be defined, but only determined. Those who strive endlessly to place their own value on a scale will consistently find that they rank lowest, and therefore 0. But 0, as a number, is a representation of nothingness. It is in rejecting this nothingness that humans determine their value while simultaneously rejecting the only means to knowing their value. Once again, we can be certain of but one thing, that we are not nothing.