A person's life stance, or lifestance, is their relation with what they accept as being of ultimate importance, the presuppositions and theory of this, the beliefs, commitments and practice of working it out in living.

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.

Life stance is a neologism apparently coined in the mid 1970s by humanists interested in educational matters, and developed originally in that context by Harry Stopes-Roe of the Rationalist Press Association and British Humanist Association. It was originally used in the context of debates over the controversial content of the City of Birmingham's Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education, 1975. That document referred to "non-religious stances for living". According to Barnes:

A low-life or lowlife is a term for a person who is considered morally unacceptable by their community, especially those who exploit others for their own selfish purposes. Examples of people who are often called "lowlifes" are the dregs of society: drug dealers, drug users, alcoholics, those with bad hygiene, thieves, liars, thugs, hustlers, con artists, griefers, pimps and spammers.

Often, the term is used as an indication of disapproval of antisocial or destructive behaviors, usually bearing a connotation of contempt and derision. This usage of the word dates to 1911.