As much as it frightens me to contemplate, there are many people who subscribe to the idea that most human beings are insignificant, worthless, and contemptible. I believe this stems from a materialistic, ‘Objectivist’ view of the world, wherein only physical facts comprise Truth and only those who capitalize, produce, or otherwise exert influence in the world are worthy of value or praise.
The Objectivist philosophy is well-known, just read any of Ayn Rand’s books such as Atlas Shrugged (or try to and then get desperately bored and skim through the final fifty pages of pontification to get to the end, like I did). However, although there exist fairly well-developed versions of opposing ‘Subjectivist’ philosophy such as Idealism, none is particularly clear.
So here is my philosophy, put here for consideration: Like in most Idealist formulations, the universe is ultimately an illusion. Unlike Idealism however, in my view nothing exists, not even mind. This nothingness is fundamentally undefined, and so it can appear to be anything, and this gives rise to the illusion of the universe.
Science has a lot to say about consistent natural phenomena, but it can say nothing beyond the fact that they are consistent. Science cannot find ultimate Truth, and natural phenomena cannot be proven to be true, merely consistent in their behavior. There is a difference between facts and Truth.
Even though nothingness is undefined, and thus ultimately unknowable, one can approximate fairly well its basic attributes. It is singular, simple, unchanging, dimensionless, and pure. Just consider a point. It is also True, and for that reason it is the subjective core of all things. I believe that it is the soul that religion speaks of, and all life shares this simple, beautiful Truth.
So when someone tells me that humanity is worthless, or the universe is without meaning, I will cordially disagree. Life creates meaning through an exploration of the illusion that is the universe, for the more falseness we know, the more we can understand Truth, and ourselves. Self awareness arises from this relationship with falseness. It always changes, but its source is always the soul.
So in summary: Zero! (but isn’t that kind of heroic?)