Definitions
Quality of life (QOL) is the general well-being of individuals and societies, outlining negative and positive features of life. It observes life satisfaction, including everything from physical health, family, education, employment, wealth, safety, security, freedom, religious beliefs, finance and the environment. For the sake of this thought, QOL is being related to individuals only. Worth noting is the correlation of QOL with income levels.
- A meaningful life is one that has a purpose and direction to it, one to which oneself attaches value, one in which one can trace coherent patterns in its past or project plans for the future. All these possibilities apply. The basic idea of meaningfulness here is the Sartrean one of injecting meaning into one's - living authentically by values oneself has chosen. Sartre's view is given in the easily available, 'Existentialism is a Humanism'.
Can it be objectively demonstrated that a serial killers' life is less meaningful than the cops who worked hard to catch him? To my mind from a humanities POV both are meaningful. The criminal in ways has caused changes in society which may be considered an objective improvement (safer roads, relevant education, better policing and laws) to the life of other individuals. When a more sophisticated criminal commits crime by bamboozling the existing norms, it further helps righteous individuals to take a look at ways to improve.
Similarly, consider a person who wants to acquire nuclear arsenal and blow up a nation. This person is acting as a security enforcer and making individuals on the other side vigil. How can you prove that this persons life is not meaningful, regardless of his morality of and ability to destroy a whole nation and its people? Sure a terrorists QOL is worse than say a middle class person from a developed country. But that does not mean his life is not contributing positively towards development of humankind (in a twisted way I concur). This then makes their lives meaningful even though it is immoral and their objective QOL is low.
By extension of this logic, no matter what you or I do or not do, what you or I say or not say, our life even as individuals will always be meaningful because other people will still be able to benefit from it either by following the example or by avoiding the same path to doom.
Help me understand the fallacy in this logic, given the arguments I have written above: Even if you decide to shoot up a school or even if you decide to help build one; in the end you are positively affecting mankind in the long run
Lastly is QOL a good measure for meaningful life determination when an immoral poor person can contribute to the same pot of meaning as the righteous resourceful person? Albeit in their own subjective ways.
