Thanks for your thoughtful engagement here. I can appreciate the point you're making about the pragmatics of worldview - especially your emphasis on the adaptability of systems in their respective contexts. It’s clear that these systems serve a practical purpose in their cultural settings, and they have their own form of life-affirmation, albeit often quite narrowly defined - as you noted
However, I would argue that the framework I’m proposing is less about dictating what is life-affirming from an external perspective, and more about opening up the conversation for what could be. In other words, it's not that any existing worldview is inherently incapable of being life-affirming in some way, but rather whether that worldview enables individuals and cultures to expand the scope of their affirmation of life.
When I say "Life is Good", it’s not about denying the complexity of suffering, confusion, or hardship. It’s not an abstract moral or metaphysical proposition, it’s a recognition of what life needs to persist and flourish on a deeper level. Synthesis, in that sense, asks: How can life’s inherent order and creative potential be maximised? It doesn’t dismiss existing systems; it just asks if they are really doing the best job of supporting life in its fullest, most expansive form.
I agree with you that life-affirming systems evolve based on cultural context. But I think the key here is the quality of that evolution. Systems that have survived, like communism or fundamentalist ideologies, do so by addressing real needs, but their potential for flourishing is limited by the kind of affirmation they offer, typically centering on survival, conformity, or overcoming suffering through fixed ideologies.
Synthesis, by contrast, suggests that the truly life-affirming systems are those that encourage depth, creativity, and complexity. It’s not about survival for its own sake, but about allowing space for meaning to evolve in ways that resonate with the richness and beauty of existence.
You’re absolutely right that worldviews evolve - i'd advocate that too, and people shift to new paradigms when they’re ready. The framework I propose isn’t about imposing something externally, it’s about creating a possibility for that next level of evolution to emerge, where people and societies can begin to affirm life not just by surviving, but by fully engaging with its creative potential.
It’s not about “which system is better” based on survival or short-term utility (although i can forgive that potential misreading) - it’s about asking whether the systems we currently inhabit truly enable the most profound forms of flourishing. What the axiom does is open a conversation about what that might look like. It doesn’t judge, but it does raise the question of how systems of thought or culture can guide us toward something greater than mere survival.