THE GOLDEN AXIOM
I'm exploring the premise that universal human value is axiomatic and considering whether it's linked to the uniquely human attribute of self-awareness. The principle is simple: I value my own life and am able to do so because I recognize that I care how it turns out and that it not be snuffed out prematurely or in vain. Since I recognize this value and owe this recognition to a self-referential awareness I share with other human beings, I also recognize they have value - for they too have recognized their own value in the same fashion as me.
Were I to regard other humans as having no value or less value than me, I would unwittingly nullify my own value inasmuch as I too am human. If I do not recognize their self-determined, existential value as a human being, how can I place any weight in my own determination about myself - when I came to value myself in the same way they came to value themselves? A failure to acknowledge their conclusion that they have value indicates a failure to accept the mechanism by which they came to that determination - in this case inductive self-awareness of one's own value. If I don't respect the mechanism of self-determined value when others utilize it to recognize their value, how can I coherently respect it when I utilize it for myself? No matter how I frame the issue, were I to fail to value the lives of other people I would in turn invalidate the value I hold for myself.
Parenthetically, this outlook appears to be the basis of the Golden Rule. It may be more than an arbitrary ethical guide, saying something intrinsic about what it means to be human and a human amongst humans.