Life stance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Life stance or lifestance refers to a person's relation with what he or she accepts as of ultimate importance, the presuppositions and theory of this, and the commitments and practice of working it out in living.
Contents |
[edit] Spectrum
The term encompasses both religions and alternatives to religion, without discrimination between them. It tries to amend the concern that the lack of non-discriminatory terminology could contribute to a failure to protect the rights of those with a life stance not corresponding to a traditional religion. In particular, the term non-believer has sometimes been used to refer to those not associated with traditional religions, misleadingly conveying a lack of convictions equal in depth to those of religious adherents.
A life stance differs from a worldview or a belief system in that the term life stance emphasizes a focus on what is of ultimate importance. Life stance differs from eupraxsophy in that the latter typically implies a strictly non-theistic outlook, whereas it is essential that a life stance can be theistic or non-theistic.
[edit] Religions
A religion is a set of beliefs and practices, often centered upon specific supernatural and/or moral claims about reality, the cosmos, and human nature, and often codified as prayer, ritual, and law. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and mystic experience. The term "religion" refers to both the personal practices related to communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction.
In the frame of European religious thought,[1] religions present a common quality, the "hallmark of patriarchal religious thought": the division of the world in two comprehensive domains, one sacred, the other profane.[2] Religion is often described as a communal system for the coherence of belief focusing on a system of thought, unseen being, person, or object, that is considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine, or of the highest truth. Moral codes, practices, values, institutions, tradition, philosophy, rituals, and scriptures are often traditionally associated with the core belief. Religion is also often described as a "way of life".
[edit] Alternatives
- Further information: Irreligion
Some believe alternatives to religion may include life stances based on atheism, agnosticism, deism, skepticism, freethought, secular humanism or general secularism. Yet many hold the view that any life stance or belief in a moral code, whether good or bad in the eyes of man, is religious.
Humanism is an example of life stance which some consider to not be religious. Yet the Supreme Court of the United States has on several occasions recognized that a man's moral life stance or philosophy qualifies as equal to religious belief and must be honored and protected under the intent of the Constitution and public law.
[edit] Theism and non-theism
Western religions are typically theistic life stances, involving acceptance of a Divine Being. Humanism is an example of a non-theistic, secular life stance, and the term lifestance is widely used by Humanists. Eastern religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism are also life stances that are largely non-theistic[citation needed].
[edit] Definition
A life stance is basically:
- An acception of something as being of ultimate importance.
- The presuppositions and theory of this. Roughly, it is the value system or moral code based on the intrinsic value.
- The personal commitments and practice of working it out in living, roughly the lifestyle
What has ultimate importance may be explained by what has intrinsic value, i.e. valuable "in itself" or "for its own sake".
Another suggested definition of life stance is:
a life stance is a set of interlinked, articulated system of beliefs about life, human nature and our existence connected to norms and values that are derived out of this views[3]
[edit] Orthography
A life stance may be distinguished from general support to a cause by capitalization of the first letter. For instance, Humanism (life stance) is distinguished from humanism generally.[4] Many life stances may contain humanism to a greater or lesser extent as instrumental value in order to fulfil their own chosen intrinsic value(s). However, Humanism regards it as having intrinsic value.
Not all life stances use this orthography.
[edit] Etymology
Life stance is a neologism apparently coined within the humanist community.[5] The term was introduced out of a concern that the lack of non-discriminatory terminology could contribute to a failure to protect the rights of those with a life stance not corresponding to a traditional religion.
[edit] Values and purposes
- Further information: Intrinsic value (ethics)#Life stances and intrinsic value
- Further information: Purpose#Life stances and purpose
Different life stances differ in what they hold as intrinsic values and purposes in life.
For instance, the purpose in Humanism is, in the broadest sense, personality, determined by humans, completely without supernatural influence. For Judaism, on the other hand, it is to serve God[6] and to prepare for the world to come[7] "Olam Haba".[8]
What is held as intrinsic value and purpose may differ substantially between individuals regarding themselves as belonging to the same life stance. However, the table below summarizes what is generally accepted as being the main intrinsic values and purposes of various life stances.
 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2008) |
| Life stance and other views |
Main intrinsic value | Main purpose | Main manifesto |
|---|---|---|---|
| nihilism | Nothingness | Nothingness | None |
| Humanism | Multiple[9] mainly humanism, human flourishing |
Enhancing personality (in the broadest sense), determined by humans, completely without supernatural influence | Humanist Manifesto |
| hedonism | pleasure | ||
| Judaism | Serve God[6] and to prepare for the world to come[7] "Olam Haba".[8] | ||
| eudaemonism or utilitarianism | Happiness | ||
| Natalism (life stance) | Human reproduction | ||
| Kantism | good will | act from duty in accordance with the universal moral law that the autonomous human being freely gives itself | Kant bibliography |
| rational deontologism | virtue or duty | ||
| Buddhism | Become enlightened as to the nature and oneness of the universe by following the Noble Eightfold Path. |
[edit] Instrumental values
When having determined what has/have instrinsic value, then there may be an approximation of the instrumental value, and therefore also the whole value, of objects. Such approximations contribute to actions and lifestyle.
[edit] Valuation of life stances
Distinguished from what various life stances hold as of intrinsic value, there is also a variation to how people externally value different life stances, especially concerning ones which are not fully followed personally.
Some[10] hold that all life stances have the same value.
This valuation may, however, may be on a theory-level and a practice-level. The theory of life stances may be viewed as being of equal value. At the same time, the practice of working it out in living may not. For instance, even the most evil and destructive life stances may be regarded as having equal value when only considering their theory, but, all in all, being of less value when considering also the practice of working them out in living.
[edit] Declaration
A public declaration of principles and intentions of a life stance may be called a manifesto. However, manifestos relating to religious belief are rather referred to as credo, or a holy script if considered to be sacred or of central importance to the religious tradition.
[edit] Overlap
Life stance overlap is the concept of life stances having features in common. This may be of various grades:
- Intrinsic value overlap: Life stances having objects in common that are regarded as having intrinsic value. It can concern both multistic life stances and monistic life stances, since the latter ones may still be regarded as separate life stances by the commitments and presuppositions of it and the theory and practice of working it out in living.
- A more practic overlap, where separate life stances tend to result in common actions and lifestyles.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Jack Goody as cited in Sacred and Profane - Durkheim's Critics. Retrieved on 2007-07-10.
- ^ Durkheim 1976, p.36
- ^ International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation - Exploring your lifestance workshop outline by Gea Meijers
- ^ Humanism Unmodified By Edd Doerr. Published in the Humanist (November/December 2002)
- ^ Need for a term "Life Stance", International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), 1996.
- ^ a b Dan Cohn-Sherbok (2003). Judaism: History, Belief, and Practice. Routledge, 512. ISBN 0415236614.
- ^ a b Abraham Joshua Heschel (2005). Heavenly Torah: As Refracted Through the Generations. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0826408028.
- ^ a b Wilfred Shuchat (2006). The Garden of Eden & the Struggle to Be Human: According to the Midrash Rabbah. Devora Publishing, 584. ISBN 1932687319.
- ^ Haught, James A.. "Meaning and Nothingness: A personal journey". Free Inquiry magazine 22 (1). Council for Secular Humanism.
- ^ e.g. World Congress of Ethnic Religions - "Worldwide Congress for equal value and respect of traditional religions." [1]
