A person's
life stance, or
lifestance, is their relation with what they accept as being of
ultimate importance. It involves the presuppositions and theories upon which such a stance could be made, a
belief system, and a commitment to working it out in one's
life. It connotes an integrated perspective on reality as a whole and how to assign valuations, thus being a concept similar or equivalent to that of a
worldview; with the latter word (derived from the German "Weltanschauung") being generally a more common and comprehensive term. Like the term "worldview", the term "life stance" is intended to be a
shared label encompassing both
religious perspectives (for instance: "a
Buddhist life stance" or "a
Christian life stance" or "a
Pagan life stance"), as well as non-religious spiritual or philosophical alternatives (for instance: "a
humanist life stance" or "a
personist life stance" or "a
Deep Ecology life stance"), without discrimination in favour of any.