Humanity stands at a civilizational threshold. Climate disruption, biodiversity collapse, chronic disease, inequality, and institutional fragmentation appear as separate crises, yet they share a common root: our collective systems — economic, political, cultural — have become disconnected from the requirements of life.
Drawing on philosopher John McMurtry’s framework of Life-Value Onto-Axiology (LVOA), this white paper reframes the current “polycrisis” as a systemic pathology of value. McMurtry’s distinction between the money-sequence of value (M → M′) and the life-sequence of value (L → M-of-L → L¹) illuminates why GDP-driven growth models systematically erode the life-capital — ecosystems, relationships, infrastructures — upon which human flourishing depends.
At the heart of the framework lies the Primary Axiom of Value:
X is of value if and only if, and to the extent that, it consists in or enables
more coherently inclusive thought, feeling, and action.
Using this axiom, we define seven universal life necessities — breathable air, potable water, nutritive food, protective shelter, healthy environmental conditions, caring relationships, and meaningful participation — as the non-negotiable ground of value. Systems that sustain these necessities are life-coherent; those that undermine them generate systemic incoherence and eventual collapse.
The paper proposes life-coherent metrics, civil commons architectures, and regenerative policy pathways that realign governance, economies, and technologies with the conditions that enable life to flourish. It integrates insights from planetary boundaries, wellbeing economics, public health, and Indigenous stewardship to provide a unifying framework for action.
When systems serve life, they thrive.
When systems exploit life, they fail.
This paper invites policymakers, academics, and citizens alike to adopt a universal compass for navigating the future:
Does this decision sustain and enrich the conditions of life — or diminish them?
