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Draft:Lifeism

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  • Comment: The article has currently assembled a hefty handful of one-line quotes using the term "lifeism", but none of the quoted writers appear to be referring to each other or building on an established concept of lifeism -- they seem to be coining a neologism as part of a discussion of other topics. To show that "Lifeism" is an established philosophical concept, we'd want to see several sources that are explicitly about it, not just using the term once or twice. Something like Tateyama's book would work, except it needs to be a reliable source, with a publisher (preferably an academic one), rather than self-published. ~ L 🌸 (talk) 18:42, 13 June 2025 (UTC)

Lifeism (or life-ism) is a term used for a number of philosophies that centre around Life itself.

In early 20th century China, along with Utilitarianism, 'Life-ism' was a popular philosophy espoused by Liang Qichao and Yan Fu (but criticized by Wang Guowei) that aimed to continuously preserve and maximize the quantity of life.[1] In his essay, Lifeism Chinese philosopher Shi Zhengbang introduced Henri Bergson's theory of life and highlighted that the core of his thoughts was to 'love life'.[2]

In his 1927 novella Kappa (Japanese: 河童) Japanese author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa writes of a fictious religion called 'Lifeism' whose adherents believe their God, the Tree of Life, teaches them to 'live avidly'.[3]

In his 1992 book entitled Columbus and Other Cannibals, American historian Jack D. Forbes wrote that the animism of native and folk religious beliefs of Africa, Asia and the Americas was synonymous with "life-ism", and that "perhaps that is what we need, "lifeism", more respect for life, more respect for the living, more respect for all forms of life."[4]

In his 2002 book entitled Derrida and Husserl: The Basic Problem of Phenomenology, American academic and author Leonard Lawlor uses the term "life-ism" to refer to a unified field within the 20th century continental philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault, that focuses on life and death, producing concepts such as Edmund Husserl's Erlebnis and Henri Bergson's Élan vital.[5]

In his 2006 book entitled The Things Themselves: Phenomenology and the Return to the Everyday American author and academic, H. Peter Steeves writes, 'We are obsessed with life, we who are alive. It is, I think, a prejudice - a sort of "lifeism".[6]

There's the Lifeism proposed by Anthony J. Marsella (1940-2024), an American author and academic who posited in 2008 that identification with life is our most essential and most authentic identity.[7]

In his 2011 book, Placing Nature on the Borders of Religion, Philosophy and Ethics American academic and author Forrest Clingerman wrote, "I love life. And I love living things. But I worry that as ethicists we have fallen into a bias: we are lifeists. And like sexism, racism, classism and speciesism, lifeism must be overcome."[8]

Lifeism is also the name of private company limited by guarantee without share capital in the United Kingdom, incorporated with Companies House on 5th January 2021. It's focus on Cultural Education is delivered through courses that can be taken online or in person with a certified trainer. The fundamental philosophy of Lifeism is the belief in life itself, rather than any manmade attempts at explaining life. It encompasses the entire range of all ideologies which relate to life and the interaction between them, culminating in an understanding of everything living and the nature of the human condition within life. The true way of life, made by nature. Lifeism explores the notion of how the environment effects consciousness.[9] Lifeism training is based on International Standards and includes Life Management Training and Life Management System courses. Lifeism considers that life is at the core of knowledge; of society or the individual. Knowing life, called Lifeism, is the essential awareness that underpins personal progress. "Lifeism is the universal respect and understanding that we are all connected organisms, and energy forms whose individual thoughts and actions effect not only our immediate circle of influences but the neighboring larger circles of environment which we are part of.[10]

Lifeism − The Next Worldview After Capitalism is also the name of a 2024 self-published book by Japanese systems engineer, Joe Tateyama.[11]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Liu, Joyce C H (2012). The Translation of Ethics. Netherlands: Rodopi. p. 88. ISBN 978-94-012-0719-5. Retrieved 13 June 2025.
  2. ^ Li, Sha (2017). The Reception of Human Rights in Early Modern China: 1897 - 1927. Italy: Key. p. 84. ISBN 978-88-6959-884-5. Retrieved 13 June 2025.
  3. ^ Akutagawa, Ryunosuke (1927). Kappa. Japan. Retrieved 13 June 2025.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ Forbes, Jack D. (1992). Columbus and Other Cannibals. USA: D-Q University Press. p. 178. ISBN 978-1-58322-982-8. Retrieved 13 June 2025.
  5. ^ Lawlor, Leonard (2002). Derrida and Husserl: The Basic Problem of Phenomenology. USA: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-10915-6. Retrieved 13 June 2025.
  6. ^ Steeves, H. Peter (2006). The Things Themselves - Phenology and the return to the every day. USA: State University of New York Press. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-7914-8127-1. Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  7. ^ Marsella, Anthony J. "Identity: Beyond Self, Culture, Nation, and Humanity to "Lifeism"". transcend.org. Transcend Media Services. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  8. ^ Forrest Clingerman; Mark H Dixon, eds. (2011). Placing Nature on the Borders of Religion, Philosophy and Ethics. USA: Ashgate. p. 212. ISBN 978-1-4094-8152-2. Retrieved 13 June 2025.
  9. ^ "lifeism". www.lifeism.uk. Retrieved 2025-02-18.
  10. ^ Allab, Trebor (2014-02-14). "Lifeism: Lifeism - The Meaning of Life - Who Am I and Who Are You - Simply Answered". Lifeism. Retrieved 2025-02-18.
  11. ^ "Joe Tateyama". amazon.com. Amazon. Retrieved 31 May 2025.
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