World view
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{{merge|Contemplation|Talk:World view#Merger proposal|date=March 2008}}
A '''world view''' (or '''worldview''') is a term [[calque]]d from the [[German language|German]] word '''''Weltanschauung''''' ({{Audio-IPA|De-Weltanschauung.ogg|[ˈvɛlt.ʔanˌʃaʊ.ʊŋ]}}) ''Welt'' is the German word for "world", and ''Anschauung'' is the German word for "view" or "outlook." It is a concept fundamental to German [[philosophy]] and [[epistemology]] and refers to a ''wide world perception''. Additionally, it refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the [[world (philosophy)|world]] and interacts with it. The German word is also in wide use in [[English language|English]], as well as the translated form ''world outlook''. (Compare with [[ideology]]).
==Origins of world views==
===Worldview and linguistics===
A worldview describes a consistent (to a varying degree) and integral sense of [[existence]] and provides a framework for generating, sustaining, and applying [[knowledge]].
The [[Sapir–Whorf hypothesis|linguistic relativity hypothesis]] of [[Benjamin Whorf|Benjamin Lee Whorf]] describes how the syntactic-semantic structure of a language becomes an underlying structure for the Weltanschauung of a people through the organization of the causal [[perception]] of the world and the linguistic [[categorization]] of entities. As linguistic categorization emerges as a representation of worldview and causality, it further modifies social perception and thereby leads to a continual interaction between [[language]] and perception.<ref>Kay, P. and W. Kempton (1984). "What is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?" ''American Anthropologist'' 86(1): 65-79.</ref>
The [[theory]], or rather [[hypothesis]], was well received in the late 1940s, but declined in prominence after a decade. In the 1990s, new research gave further support for the linguistic relativity theory, in the works of Stephen Levinson and his team at the [[Max-Planck-Gesellschaft|Max Planck institute]] for [[Psycholinguistics]] at [[Nijmegen]], [[The Netherlands]] [http://www.mpi.nl/world/]. The theory has also gained attention through the work of [[Lera Boroditsky]] at Stanford University.
===Weltanschauung and cognitive philosophy===
One of the most important concepts in cognitive [[philosophy]] and [[generative sciences]] is the [[Germany|German]] concept of ‘Weltanschauung’. This expression refers to the "wide worldview" or "wide world perception" of a people, family, or person. The Weltanschauung of a people originates from the unique world experience of a people, which they experience over several millennia. The [[language]] of a people reflects the Weltanschauung of that people in the form of its [[Syntax|syntactic structures]] and untranslatable [[connotation]]s and its [[denotation]]s.
If it were possible to draw a [[map]] of the [[world]] on the basis of Weltanschauung, it would probably be seen to cross political borders — Weltanschauung is the product of [[political]] borders and common experiences of a people from a [[geographical]] region,<ref name= "Whorf"> Carroll, John B. (ed.) [1956] (1997). Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Mass.: Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ISBN 0-262-73006-5. </ref> [[natural environment|environmental]]-[[climatic]] conditions, the economic resources available, socio-cultural [[system]]s, and the [[Language families and languages|linguistic family]].<ref name= "Whorf"> Carroll, John B. (ed.) [1956] (1997). Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, Mass.: Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ISBN 0-262-73006-5. </ref> (The work of the [[Population genetics|population geneticist]] [[Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza]] aims to show the gene-[[historical linguistics|linguistic]] co-[[evolution]] of people).
If the [[Sapir-Whorf hypothesis]] is correct, the worldview map of the world would be similar to the linguistic map of the world. However, it would also almost coincide with a map of the world drawn on the basis of [[music]] across people.<ref>Whorf, Benjamin (John Carroll, Editor) (1956). ''Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf.'' MIT Press.</ref>
===Worldview and folk-epics===
As natural language becomes manifestations of world [[perception]], the [[literature]] of a people with common Weltanschauung emerges as holistic [[representation (psychology)|representations]] of the wide world perception of the people. Thus the extent and commonality between world folk-epics becomes a manifestation of the commonality and extent of a worldview.
[[Epic poems]] are shared often by people across political borders and across generations. Examples of such epics include the [[Nibelungenlied]] of the [[Germanic tribes|Germanic]]-[[Scandinavia]]n people, The [[Silappadhikaram]] of the [[South India]]n people, The [[Gilgamesh]] of the [[Mesopotamia]]n-[[Sumeria]]n [[civilization]] and the people of the [[Fertile Crescent]] at large, The [[The Book of One Thousand and One Nights|Arabian nights]] of the [[Arab world]] and the [[Sundiata]] epic of the [[Mandé]] people.
{{see also|list of world folk-epics}}
===Construction of worldviews===
The 'construction of integrating worldviews' begins from fragments of worldviews offered to us by the different scientific disciplines and the various systems of knowledge. It is contributed to by different perspectives that exist in the world's different cultures. This is the main topic of research at the [[Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies]].
It should be noted that while Apostel and his followers clearly hold that ''individuals'' can ''construct'' worldviews, other writers regard worldviews as operating at a [[community]] level, and/or in an [[unconscious]] way. For instance, if one's worldview is fixed by one's language, as according to a strong version of the [[Sapir-Whorf hypothesis]], one would have to learn or invent a new language in order to construct a new worldview.
According to Apostel, a worldview should comprise seven elements:
#An [[ontology]], a descriptive [[Mental model|model]] of the world
#An [[explanation]] of the world
#A [[futurology]], answering the question "where are we heading?"
#Values, answers to [[ethical]] questions: "What should we do?"
#A [[praxeology]], or [[methodology]], or theory of [[Action (philosophy)|action]].: "How should we attain our goals?"
#An [[epistemology]], or theory of [[knowledge]]. "What is [[truth|true]] and false?"
#An [[etiology]]. A constructed world-view should contain an account of its own "building blocks," its origins and construction.
==Impact of worldviews==
===Structural aspects===
The term denotes a comprehensive set of opinions, seen as an [[organic unity]], about the world as the medium and exercise of human existence. Weltanschauung serves as a framework for generating various dimensions of human perception and experience like [[knowledge]], [[politics]], [[economics]], [[religion]], [[culture]], [[science]], and [[ethics]]. For example, worldview of [[causality]] as ''uni-directional'', ''cyclic'', or ''spiral'' generates a framework of the world that reflects these systems of causality. A uni-directional view of causality is present in some monotheistic views of the world with a beginning and an end and a single great force with a single end (e.g., [[Christianity]] and [[Islam]]), while a cyclic worldview of causality is present in religious tradition which is cyclic and seasonal and wherein events and experiences recur in systematic patterns (e.g., [[Zoroastrianism]], [[Mithraism]], and [[Hinduism]]).
These worldviews of [[causality]] not only underlie religious traditions but also other aspects of thought like the purpose of [[history]], [[politics|political]] and [[economics|economic]] theories, and systems like [[democracy]], [[authoritarianism]], [[anarchism]], [[capitalism]], [[socialism]], and [[communism]].
The worldview of [[linear]] and [[Nonlinearity|non-linear]] causality generates various related/conflicting disciplines and approaches in [[scientific thinking]]. The Weltanschauung of the temporal contiguity of act and event leads to underlying diversifications like ''determinism'' vs. ''free will''. A worldview of [[Freewill]] leads to disciplines that are governed by simple laws that remain constant and are static and [[empirical]] in scientific method, while a worldview of [[determinism]] generates disciplines that are governed with [[dynamical systems|generative systems]] and [[Rationalism|rationalistic]] in [[scientific method]].
Some forms of [[Philosophical naturalism]] and [[materialism]] reject the validity of entities inaccessible to [[natural science]]. They view the [[scientific method]] as the most reliable model for [[model (abstract)|building]] and [[understanding]] of the [[world]].
===Other aspects===
In ''[[LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii|The Language of the Third Reich]]'', Weltanschauungen came to designate the instinctive understanding of complex geo-political problems by the [[Nazism|Nazis]], which allowed them to act in the name of a higher ideal<ref>Victor Klemperer, ''The Language of the Third Reich: A Philologist's Notebook'', trans. Martin Brady, London: Continuum, 2002</ref> and in accordance to their theory of the world. These acts perceived outside that unique Weltanschauung are now commonly perceived as acts of aggression, such as openly beginning invasions, [[logical fallacy|twisting facts]], and violating [[human rights]].
==Worldviews in religion and philosophy==
Various writers suggest that religious or philosophical belief-systems should be seen as worldviews rather than a set of individual [[hypothesis|hypotheses]] or [[theory|theories]]. The Japanese Philosopher [[Nishida Kitaro]] wrote extensively on "the Religious Worldview" in exploring the philosophical significance of Eastern religions<ref> indeed [[Nishida Kitaro|Kitaro]]'s final book is ''Last Writings: Nothingness and the Religious Worldview''</ref>. According to [[Neo-Calvinist]] [[David Naugle]]'s ''Worldview: The History of a Concept'' "Conceiving of Christianity as a worldview has been one of the most significant developments in the recent history of the church."<ref>David K. Naugle ''Worldview: The History of a Concept'' ISBN 0802847617</ref>
The Christian thinker [[James W. Sire]] defines a worldview as "a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic makeup of our world." and suggests that "we should all think in terms of worldviews, that is, with a consciousness not only of our own way of thought but also that of other people, so that we can first understand and then genuinely communicate with others in our pluralistic society."<ref>James W. Sire ''The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog'' p15-16 (text readable at Amazon.com)</ref> The Rev. Professor [[Keith Ward]] bases his discussion of the rationality of religious belief in [[Is Religion Dangerous?]] on a consideration of religious and non-religious worldviews.<ref>see article on [[Is Religion Dangerous?|the book]] for details and ref</ref>
The philosophical importance of Worldviews became increasingly clear during the 20th Century for a number of reasons, such as increasing contact between cultures, and the failure of some aspects of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] project, such as the [[rationalist]] project of attaining all truth by reason alone. [[Mathematical logic]] showed that fundamental choices of [[axioms]] were essential in deductive reasoning<ref>Not just in the obvious sense that you need axioms to prove anything, but the fact that for example the [[Axiom of choice]] and [[Axiom S5]], although widely regarded as correct, were in some sense optional.</ref> and that, even having chosen axioms not everything that was true in a given [[logical system]] could be proven<ref>see [[Godel's incompleteness theorem]] and discussion in eg [[John Lucas]]'s ''The Freedom of the Will''</ref>. Some philosophers believe the problems extend to "the inconsistencies and failures which plagued the Enlightenment attempt to identify universal moral and rational principles"<ref> Thus [[Alister McGrath]] in ''[[The Science of God]]'' p 109 citing in particular [[Alasdair MacIntyre]]'s ''Whose Justice? Which Rationality?'' - he also cites [[Nicholas Wolterstorff]] and [[Paul Feyerabend]]</ref>; although Enlightenment principles such as [[universal suffrage]] and (the ''universal'' declaration of) [[human rights]] are accepted, if not taken for granted, by many.<ref>"Governments in a democracy do not grant the fundamental freedoms enumerated by Jefferson; governments are created to protect those freedoms that every individual possesses by virtue of his or her existence. In their formulation by the Enlightenment philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries, inalienable rights are God-given natural rights. These rights are not destroyed when civil society is created, and neither society nor government can remove or "alienate" them."[http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/whatsdem/whatdm3.htm US Gov website on democracy]</ref>
A worldview can be considered as comprising a number of [[basic belief]]s which are philosophically equivalent to the axioms of the worldview considered as a logical theory. These basic beliefs cannot, by definition, be ''proven'' (in the logical sense) within the worldview precisely because they are [[axiom]]s, and are typically argued ''from'' rather than argued ''for''<ref>see eg Hill & Rauser ''Christian Philosophy A-Z'' [[Edinburgh University Press]] (2006) ISBN 9780748621521 p200</ref>. However their coherence can be explored philosophically and logically, and if two different worldviews have sufficient common beliefs it may be possible to have a constructive dialogue between them<ref>In the Christian tradition this goes back at least to [[Justin Martyr]]'s ''Dialogues with Trypho, A Jew'', and has roots in the debates recorded in the [[New Testament]]. For a discussion of the long history of religious dialogue in India, see [[Amartya Sen]]'s ''The Argumentative Indian''</ref>. On the other hand, if different worldviews are held to be basically
incommensurate and irreconcilable, then the situation is one of cultural [[relativism]] and would therefore incur the standard criticisms from [[philosophical realist]]s. <ref>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/c/cog-rel.htm#H5 ''Cognitive Relativism'', Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]</ref>
<ref>The problem of self-refutation is quite general. It arises whether truth is relativized to a framework of concepts, of beliefs, of standards, of practices.[http://www.science.uva.nl/~seop/entries/relativism/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy</ref><ref>[http://www.friesian.com/relative.htm The Friesian School on Relativism]</ref>. Additionally, religious believers might not wish to see their beliefs relativized into something that is only "true for them"<ref>[http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=49207 Pope Benedict warns against relativism]</ref><ref>[http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/RATZRELA.HTM Ratzinger, J. ''Relativism, the Central Problem for Faith Today'']</ref>. [[Subjective logic]] is a belief reasoning formalism where beliefs explicitly are subjectively held by individuals but where a consensus between different worldviews can be achieved<ref>[http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00007204/ Jøsang, A. ''A Logic for Uncertain Probabilities.'' International Journal of Uncertainty, Fuzziness and Knowledge-Based Systems, 9(3), pp.279-311, June 2001.]</ref>.
A third alternative is that the Worldview approach is only a ''methodological'' relativism, that it is
a suspension judgment about the truth of various belief systems, but not a declaration that there is no global truth. For instance, the religious philosopher [[Ninian Smart]] begins his ''Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs'' with "Exploring Religions and Analysing Worldviews" and argues for "the neutral, dispassionate study of different religious and secular systems - a process I call worldview analysis."<ref>[[Ninian Smart]] ''Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs (3rd Edition)'' ISBN 0130209805 p14</ref>
== See also ==
<div style="-moz-column-count:3; column-count:3;">
* [[Belief]]
* [[Belief networks]]
* [[Cultural identity]]
* [[Ideology]]
* [[Life stance]]
* [[Metaphysics]]
* [[Ontology]]
* [[Paradigm]]
* [[Perspective (cognitive)|Perspective]]
* [[Philosophy]]
* [[Perspective (cognitive)|Point of view]]
* [[Reality]]
* [[Reality tunnel]]
* [[Religion]]
* [[Scientism]]
* [[Scientific modeling]]
* [[Social reality]]
* [[Socially constructed reality]]
* [[Subjective logic]]
</div>
==References==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
* [http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/WORLVIEW.html "World View article on the Principia Cybernetica Project] - Another article on World View complementary to this one.
* Apostel, Leo and Van der Veken, Jan. (1991) Wereldbeelden, DNB/Pelckmans.
* Aerts, Diederick, Apostel, Leo, De Moor, Bart, Hellemans, Staf, Maex, Edel, Van Belle, Hubert, Van der Veken, Jan. 1994. [http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/pub/books/worldviews.pdf "World views. From Fragmentation to Integration"]. '''VUB'''Press. Translation of (Apostel and Van der Veken 1991) with some additions. - The basic book of World Views, from the Center Leo Apostel.
*[http://www.projectworldview.org/worldviews.htm "Worldviews--An Introduction"] from Project Worldview
* [[b:Nature|Wikibook:The scientific world view]]
* {{PDFlink|[http://cognation.stanford.edu/press/newscientist.pdf "You are what you speak"]|5.15 [[Mebibyte|MiB]]<!-- application/pdf, 5401034 bytes -->}} - an essay on current research in linguistic relativity (Lera Boroditsky)
* {{PDFlink|[http://www.wmich.edu/slcsp/SLCSP106/SLCSP106.PDF Cobern, W. ''World View, Metaphysics, and Epistemology'']|50.3 [[Kibibyte|KiB]]<!-- application/pdf, 51592 bytes -->}}
*[http://www.inTERRAgation.com inTERRAgation.com - A documentary project. Collecting and evaluating answers to "the meaning of life" from around the world.]
*[http://henrycenter.org/files/cole.pdf Cole, Graham A., "Do Christians Have A Worldview?"] A paper examining the concept of worldview as it relates to and has been used by Christianity. Contains a helpful annotated bibliography.
[[Category:Epistemology]]
[[Category:Anthropology]]
[[Category:Cognitive science]]
[[Category:Scientific modeling]]
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