Paths to Being, Life Style, and Individuality

Abstract

Our analysis of the ways in which individuals attempt to make their lives meaningful has identified three basic paths to being, each motivated by a distinctive value-orientation, intrinsic, self, or social. Valid philosophies of life emerge when these value commitments entail existential risk and an existential criterion. Furthermore, distinctive life styles are considered to result from attempts to pursue patterns in living that are consistent with one's philosophy of life and satisfy the existential criterion. These concepts are also analyzed from the standpoint of a multifactor-systems theory of individuality, where distinctive life styles are seen as resulting from the integration of the value and affective systems of personality.