Justifying a life requires separating value from motivation.

Evidence

A MAN who sets out to justify his existence and his activities has to distinguish two different questions. The first is whether the work which he does is worth doing; and the second is why he does it, whatever its value may be. — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 134

Categorization

• DEFINE: Hardy’s opening framework splits justification into worth-doing versus why-do-it — the two questions that structure the whole apology.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 134
• XREF: connects to: Voluntariness concerns the act, intent concerns the motive. — Bryan A. Garner, Jeff Newman, Tiger Jackson, The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style,…, 1214; Ethical merit requires the conquest of contrary impulses — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 243; Survival itself implies value through a survivorship bias — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 644