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List of 105 Life Philosophies

John Spacey, updated on July 01, 2024

A life philosophy are principles and views that provide an individual with a framework for understanding the world and living life with a sense of direction and purpose. These evolve with experience and self-reflection and are inevitably based on the rich set of philosophies provided by cultures that are embedded in language, stories, music, religion, knowledge and art. The following are examples of life philosophies.

Beliefs & Values

Things that you believe to be true and believe to be important. This includes foundational elements of your worldview such as whether you believe in free will or determinism. Values are more things that you view as critically important to your life or life in general such as the unity of humanity.

Life Purpose

The things that you view as important to living a meaningful life. These give an individual a sense of purpose and direction and can include some arguably negative directions such as living your life to accumulate possessions.

Attitudes & Perspectives

Your approach to thinking and feeling about yourself and the world. Again this includes opposites such as empiricism that seeks universal knowledge based on science and relativism that doesn't believe in the existence of universal knowledge such that individuals are free to define reality for themselves.

Relationships & Society

Philosophies regarding your relationships with people and society itself. This can include ideals for treating people with respect, fairness, compassion and understanding. Regarding society, philosophies can either emphasis your duty to society or your freedom and independence from it.

Self-Reflection & Growth

Philosophies concerning reflection upon yourself and growing as a person. This includes ideals for thinking and feeling such as a calm sense of inner peace or maintaining your ability to approach the world in a playful and joyful way.

Balance & Wellbeing

Philosophies for balancing different elements of the human experience such as work, socializing, family, culture, physical activity and spirituality. This can include principles for allocating your time such as prioritizing quality time.

Doing Good

Principles for trying to have a positive impact on the world such as think global, act local. These include ways of life such as ethical consumerism or self-sufficiency and general principles for behavior such as selflessness.