What are Worldviews?
"They are ill discoverers that
think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea."
Francis Bacon
“To a hammer, all problems appear
to be nails”
Anonymous.
A worldview is much like a filter, of our own selection, that we use to restrict the flow of undesired information. Think of a red lens, viewing a sunset. Then think of a blue lens viewing that same sunset. Looking at the exact same thing, totally different views are obtained.
“I see NUHthing!”
Sgt Shultz, Hogan’s Heroes
We have mental filters, which restrict certain types of inputs. These filters allow only the information that supports our view of “what exists”. This is our worldview. Worldviews filter information covering both daily existence, and abstractions. There are many concepts of that which constitutes a worldview.
Here is a start:
A worldview encompasses “Life’s essence and meaning”. [1]
And another, this time covering the four questions that every human must answer:
1.
What is real?
2.
Who is well off?
3.
Who is a really good person?
4.
How does one become a really good person?[2]
And here is still another view:
Aspects of a
worldview to be considered:
1.
Reality and Truth (E.g., Creation Story)
2.
View of the Value of Humanity
3.
Intuitivity (View beyond the physical)
4.
Morality
(Personal Behavior Values)
5.
Social Responsibility (Group Behavior Values)
And yet another view:
A
worldview is that which gives meaning, purpose and truth in one’s life.
One way that worldviews can be thought about is to look at a person’s self-view, view of external reality, and the view of the relationship between the person and external reality.
Aspects of Worldviews
Worldviews can be very restrictive, or very broad. The following is a partial list of some of the aspects of a worldview.
Self-view (Me:
Who am I?)
Below
is an example of a list of components of “self”, ranked in order of control,
and influence over the other components. For example, “Muslim” influences
“Husband”, and is therefore ranked higher in this particular schema:
1. Involuntary components of self:
·
Earthling
·
Alive
·
Human
·
Male, adult,
Caucasian, son, brother, uncle, nephew, etc.
2. Voluntary components of self:
·
Atheist /
Christian / Muslim / Buddhist / Hindu
·
Husband
·
Father,
Grandfather, Great-grandfather
·
American
(geographical and cultural roots)
·
Farmer
(profession)
·
Philosopher /
Apologist / Good ‘Ol Boy / Mass Murderer (hobby)
3. External Reality: Tools I
Use To View The World:
Beyond the “self”, one views the external environment, or world, using tools to detect and determine reality. These are necessarily filters to the actual reality:
· Sense Filters: 5 senses; Sense extensions, such as instrumentation.
· Data Filters: Empiricism, forensics (historical), tradition, revelation, logical philosophy.
· Rationality Filters: Fad philosophies; broadcast / pop realities.
5. External Reality: Tools I
Use To Determine the Validity of My View of The World:
The validity of one’s view of reality might (or might not) be challenged by using another set of tools:
· Usually none; no challenge.
· Principles of Logic, rational thought.
· Emotion; non-rational desires, lusts.
6. External Reality: Tools I Use To View Ethics /
Morality
Beyond reality, there is a view of transcendence that requires
still other tools:
· None, there is no right or wrong, only law and punishment.
· Internal moral compass (self directed)
· Human wisdom (from philosophy to soap operas to Oprah).
· Tradition. (‘Twas always thus).
· Intuition / Revelation.
7. My relationship to the
World: Tools I use to determine the
validity of my view of Ethics / Morality:
The validity of the transcendent can be questioned using these
tools:
· Human wisdom (from philosophy and logic to tradition to pop culture).
· Intuition, Revelation.
My worldview is my personal contact with, and view of, reality. My view of reality will color my view of morality, social responsibility, and my relationships with virtually everyone. If my world view is not synchronized in any way with yours, our ability to communicate is seriously impeded.
Moreover, if I do not understand my own worldview, including whether or not it accurately reflects true reality, my worldview might be schizophrenic, endorsing contradictory, illogical values. A worldview that contains contradictions is said to be “internally inconsistent”, or “incoherent”.
Dualism
There can also be “dualism” crossover in a worldview. It is possible to restrain one’s ethical, moral views into one mental container, while allowing physical, naturalistic, materialistic views to be restrained to another container, even though the two concepts clash or contradict. For example a scientist might be a materialist empiricist from 8 to 5 pm, then come home and exhibit non-secular, non-materialist feelings such as love and respect, and moral behavior while with his family. The day-time materialism existence might deny the existence of such transcendent entities, but the scientist could ignore that contradiction while at home, thereby living non-coherently inside a worldview paradox. Western culture has become dualist, separating public secular naturalism and materialism from private spiritual, intuition and revelation.[3]
Structural Elements of a Worldview.
Worldviews contain some common elements. These elements will be found in almost all worldviews, even if the holder of the worldview has not given them much, if any, thought.
Here is a list of elements common to most worldviews:
1. Cognition of essence of reality, and levels (Godelian) of reality:
a. Cognition of Natural essence
(First Principles of the existence of reality and truth)
b. Cognition of Intuitive essence
(First level of validation of the existence of reality and truth)
c. Cognition of Spiritual essence
(Second level of validation of the existence of reality and truth).
2. Stories concerning the essences:
a. Origin Story
1. Origin of the cosmos
2. Origin of life
3. Origin of man
b. Purpose of Life Story
c. Value of Life Story
d. “Becoming” Story
e. Afterlife / Beyond life Story
3. Statements of Belief
a. Statement of Faith (Non-negotiable)
b. Statement of Ethos
c. Statement of Unacceptable Beliefs
d. Statement of The Wisdoms, Accepted Beliefs
e. Statement of Teaching, Education
f. Statement of Evil
g. Statement of Relationship with other Beliefs.
4. Hierarchy
a. Journeymen practioners; High Authorities
b. Teachers, Educators
c. Becomers, Students
5. Valued Unquestionable Legacies
a. Texts, documents, unquestionable absolute truths.
It has been said that few people have a coherent philosophy; fewer still have a coherent theology; but whether they know it or not, all people have a worldview (coherent or not).
Every human has a worldview. Every human sees the world through a filter that is specific to his/her particular circumstances. So accurate communication has to compensate for each participant’s own specific slant on the world. The next section shows how some concepts can be skewed incrementally, providing erroneous segments that are plugged into worldviews. Communication with holders of such illogical worldviews is difficult.
Worldviews become presuppositions for all of one’s approaches to life. Every decision, every response is made in congruence with one’s worldview. Most folks probably don’t even know, or at least don’t think much about, the underlying basis for all of their viewpoint of reality and truth.