You're making the point that in order to figure out what (if anything) is valuable, we need to have a standard of value, and you're absolutely right. Now, ther

You're making the point that in order to figure out what (if anything) is valuable, we need to have a standard of value, and you're absolutely right. Now, there are lots of potential standards of value. e.g. "immediate pleasure" (hedonism); what's good for others (altruism); etc. The proper standard of value is: what is good or bad for an individual's life, as a human being. So, that's how I'm defining "valuable" here. Why is that the proper standard of value? Well, any deviation from that standard is going to be destructive to life, whereas following it will sustain life. Living successfully is a prerequisite (and the primary component) of happiness (in the fullest sense of the word--i.e. a non-contradictory enjoyment of being alive and all that that entails). My statements here are not to be taken as standing on their own. There are lots of questions to ask. (A basic one would be: How can you claim to actually know anything, in the first place?.) I'm not going to try to present the full philosophical justification (i.e. present and validate an entire philosophical system), but it's out there if you look.