Everything about Life Stance totally explained
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.
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's essential that a life stance can be theistic or non-theistic.
Religions
A
religion is a set of beliefs and practices, often centered upon specific supernatural and moral claims about
reality, the
cosmos, and
human nature, and often codified as
prayer,
ritual, and
religious 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, 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. 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's considered to be
supernatural, sacred,
divine, or of the highest
truth.
Moral codes, practices, values, institutions, tradition, rituals, and
scriptures are often traditionally associated with the core belief, and these may have some overlap with concepts in secular
philosophy. Religion is also often described as a "
way of life".
Alternatives
Alternatives to religion may include life stances based on
atheism,
agnosticism,
deism,
skepticism,
freethought,
secular humanism or general
secularism.
Humanism is an example of life stance which isn't religious.
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.
Definition
A life stance is basically:
What has ultimate importance may be explained by what has
intrinsic value, for example 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
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. 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.
Etymology
Life stance is a
neologism apparently coined within the humanist community. 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.
Values and purposes
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's to serve God and to prepare for the world to come "
Olam Haba".
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.
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.
Valuation of life stances
Distinguished from what various life stances hold as of
intrinsic value, there's also a variation to how people externally value different life stances, especially concerning ones which are not fully followed personally.
Some 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.
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.
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.Further Information
Get more info on 'Life Stance'.
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