Orientation in life, reflection, actions and behavior of a person are determined by worldview. This is a rather complex philosophical concept that covers the psychological, cognitive, logical and social spheres of human existence. Different sciences define this phenomenon in their own way; philosophy seeks to unite all existing approaches, creating an integral concept.
Concept of worldview
Human consciousness has a complex structure, the basic part of which is the worldview. The main types of worldview are formed as the personality develops and are an integral part of it, along with character. It is a person’s concentrated ideas about the world, his experience, and cognitive reserve.
Worldview is a general category that in philosophy denotes a person’s acquisition of a theoretical basis in his ideas about life. It includes the results of a person’s understanding of global issues of existence: the meaning of life, the concept of happiness, what good and evil are, what truth is, etc. These are the most general principles of the existence of an individual person.
Statements by philosophers about the meaning of life.
I present here my favorite statements by philosophers about the meaning of life. You can find other wise sayings of great people about life, statements of great people about the meaning of life on this useful site , which I myself always use. In total, the site contains more than 1000 statements about the meaning of life.
Signs of worldview
At the same time, the worldview, despite its pronounced subjective nature, has historical and social aspects, therefore this phenomenon acts as a sign of the human species as a whole and has objective, generalized characteristics. The main characteristic of a worldview is its integrity; it is a complex formation and is a form of social and individual human consciousness. It is also characterized by generality, since from experience a person draws universal conclusions, explaining the universe.
Structure
Since a worldview is a complex formation, it has several levels, at least two of them: these are types of worldviews of a theoretical and practical order. The first are the result of an abstract understanding of the most general principles of the existence of the world, which is usually formed in the course of training, philosophical and scientific knowledge, the second are spontaneously formed ideas about the order of things in the world, they are determined by individual experience. The components of the structure of worldviews are knowledge, interests, aspirations, principles, ideals, stereotypes, norms, beliefs.
Worldview, its types and forms are the result of a person’s understanding of the surrounding reality. The main structural elements are worldview and worldview as the implementation of two basic ways of mastering reality.
Worldview is the result of cognition through the senses, perception and emotions. Worldview is the result of a logical, rational understanding of the facts of the objective and subjective worlds.
Complex formation process
A person does not receive all types of worldviews from birth; they can only be formed during his lifetime. Socialization is directly related to the formation of a worldview. When a person begins to ask universal and philosophical questions, then a worldview begins to take shape. This is a complex process that occurs in several planes simultaneously. A person accumulates experience and knowledge, his interests and skills are formed, all of this will become components of his worldview.
The main point in the formation of a worldview is the search for one’s place in society; self-esteem and personality orientation play an important role here. Gradually, the system of assessments of the world and oneself in it is consolidated and moves into the category of beliefs and ideas, which form the basis of the worldview.
The process of forming a worldview is long, and perhaps even endless. It begins in childhood, when basic life ideas are laid and stereotypes are formed. In youth, a system of principles appears that will be the basis for a person’s actions, and in adulthood, the crystallization of the worldview occurs, its awareness and correction. This process can last a lifetime. Education plays an important role. The various ways and types of worldview formation lead to the fact that it takes on numerous forms and options.
Functions: briefly in the table
key functions of the everyday worldview can be identified :
| Function | Manifestation |
| Information-reflective | All phenomena, events and images that a person absorbs from the surrounding reality are reflected in his consciousness in accordance with his existing attitudes and principles. When receiving information from the outside, each person perceives it in his own way, since the structure of the everyday worldview is different for everyone. |
| Orientation-regulatory | In his actions and decisions, a person is guided by his inner worldview. His actions correspond to his beliefs and moral principles. If in the course of life existing views on certain issues change, then the assessment of the corresponding situations will change. |
| Estimated | The individual perceives all the phenomena observed around him through the prism of his everyday worldview. As a result, he can evaluate any phenomenon in accordance with existing views and beliefs. |
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Traditional types of worldviews
A broad view of the world is a worldview; in the early stages it can develop spontaneously, based on life experience, but is usually subject to social factors of influence, primarily the family has the most important influence.
It is traditional to distinguish such types of worldviews as ordinary, philosophical, scientific, historical, religious, mythological. There are also attempts to distinguish types on various grounds, for example, optimistic and pessimistic worldview, rational and intuitive, systemic and chaotic, aesthetic. There can be countless such examples.
Mythological worldview
Primitive awareness and exploration of the world took different forms and types, and a person’s worldview was formed on their basis. Mythological ideas about the world are characterized by syncretism and metaphorical form. They combine beliefs, knowledge, and convictions in an undifferentiated form. That is why science, religion, and philosophy grew out of myths in their time.
The mythological worldview is built on direct experience; even in the early days, man could not penetrate into the depths of things, but he needed answers to the questions of existence, and he creates a system of explanations, which he puts in a mythopoetic form.
The mythological worldview is characterized to a lesser extent by knowledge, and to a greater extent by ideas and beliefs. It reflects the insurmountable dependence of man on the forces of nature. Mythological ideas originate from primitive antiquity, but they do not disappear from the life of modern man - social mythology successfully uses the simplest explanatory mechanisms today. Each of us, in our individual development, goes through the stage of mythological knowledge, and elements of the mythological worldview are relevant in any historical era.
Religious worldview
The mythological worldview is being replaced by a religious picture of the world. They have a lot in common, but the religious worldview is a higher stage of human development. If the mythological was based only on sensory images and was expressed in a worldview, then the religious adds logical knowledge to sensory perception.
The main form of existence of a religious worldview is faith; it is on it that the believer’s picture of the world is based. It gives a person answers to the basic questions of existence, relying not only on emotions, but also on logic. The religious worldview already contains an ideological component and establishes cause-and-effect relationships between phenomena, people’s actions and the world.
The main types of religious worldview - Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism - embody different pictures of the world and ideals. Religion, unlike myth, not only explains the world, but also dictates certain behavioral rules. The religious picture of the world contains moral ideals and norms; this worldview is already being built in the course of answering questions about the meaning of life and the place and significance of an individual in the world.
The central place in the religious worldview is occupied by the person and idea of God; he acts as the source of all phenomena and the main explanatory argument. A person is offered the only form of realization of religiosity - this is faith, that is, despite the presence of logic in religious texts, the believer’s picture of the world is still built on emotions and intuition.
What influences the formation of a worldview?
As noted above, a person’s worldview is formed throughout life under the influence of various external factors. The greatest influence is exerted by such factors as:
- Environment. Of course, first of all, these are the people surrounding the child as he grows up. These are parents and other relatives, educators and mentors. For most people, environment is the most important factor. For example, believers, as a rule, adhere to exactly the religion to which their parents taught them.
- Society. The worldview of society also plays an important role. As the child grows up, he largely adopts it through culture, traditions and stereotypes. His idea of his place in society, family life, success and other social aspects is formed precisely on the basis of his social worldview.
- Religion. Most of the world's religions directly indicate what views a believer should adhere to, and also regulate the main aspects of personal and social life.
- Education and science. A high level of education usually helps a person develop a scientific worldview. He begins to separate emotions from facts and evaluate the reliability of new knowledge.
- Epoch. Worldview can be a sign of the era and temporary circumstances in which a person grows and matures. This factor has become especially significant now, in the era of accessible information and rapid development of technology. That’s why the worldview of most people now is so different from their parents’.
- Profession. The main type of activity, professional knowledge and experience have a significant impact on the formation of a worldview. The best example here are the psychologists mentioned above, for whom their education and experience allow them to understand much better not only the emotions of others, but also their own.
Historical worldview
In the process of development, humanity undergoes significant changes in its attitude and understanding of the world. In this regard, we can talk about the worldview of various historical eras, which are associated with the dominant view of the world. Thus, antiquity is a time of dominance of aesthetic and philosophical ideals. They are the main reference point for a person in perceiving the world.
In the Middle Ages, the religious worldview dominated; it was faith that became the source of world understanding and answers to the main questions. In modern times, the scientific picture of the world becomes the basis for the formation of a worldview; natural sciences answer the main questions of existence in line with their discoveries and hypotheses.
The 19th century is the time of the formation of a multipolar picture; in parallel, there are several philosophical and scientific concepts that become the main ideological principle for people. In the 20th century, the mosaic of worldviews only increased, and today one can see that they are formed on various grounds - from mythological to scientific.
Immanuel Kant: “Man constructs the world around himself”
Immanuel Kant is a giant of philosophical thought. His teaching became a kind of waterline that separated philosophy “before Kant” from philosophy “after Kant.”
He was the first to express an idea that today may not sound like a bolt from the blue, but which we completely forget about in everyday life.
Kant showed that everything that a person deals with is the result of the creative powers of the person himself.
The monitor in front of your eyes does not exist “outside you”; you yourself created this monitor. The easiest way to explain the essence of the idea is physiology: the image of the monitor is formed by your brain, and it is with it that you are dealing, and not with the “real monitor”.
However, Kant thought in philosophical terminology, and physiology as a science did not yet exist. Moreover, if the world exists in the brain, where then does the brain exist? Therefore, instead of “brain,” Kant used the term “a priori knowledge,” that is, knowledge that exists in a person from the moment of birth and allows him to create a monitor from something inaccessible.
He identified various types of this knowledge, but its primary forms, which are responsible for the sensory world, are space and time. That is, there is neither time nor space without a person, it is a grid, glasses through which a person looks at the world, while simultaneously creating it.
Everyday worldview
The simplest type of worldview is the everyday, which unites ideas about everyday life. This is the part of consciousness that directly follows from human experience. It is formed on the basis of sensory-emotional perception of the world.
The main source of ideas of the everyday worldview is participation in practical activities, labor and social activity. A person observes the surrounding reality: nature, other people, himself. He establishes patterns that become the starting points of the everyday worldview. It is often also called common sense. A characteristic feature of the everyday worldview is traditionalism. Today, the media is primarily responsible for its formation, and the main form of existence is stereotypes. It is often realized in the form of superstitions, since it is based on ideas passed down from generation to generation, which are not always confirmed by science or practice.
Examples from life
Examples of everyday worldview:
- Young women from a certain age strive to create a family union with a suitable partner. The indispensable desire to get married and subsequently have children is based both on everyday experience, the existence of a collective public opinion on this issue, the experience of the immediate environment (mothers, grandmothers, sisters, friends), and on common sense.
The advantage of such a manifestation of an ordinary worldview is the desire of women to realize themselves as a wife and mother, to create a social unit of society.The downside is the presence of stereotypes in society, in response to which women often do not take into account their objective desires and views.
- Almost all people celebrate their birthday every year . Already at an early age, children, watching adults, receive information about the presence of such a day for each person. The belief is formed that a birthday is a special holiday on which it is necessary to organize a celebration and invite all loved ones to it. These people, in turn, should honor the birthday person and give him gifts.
- The need for basic daily self-care is also part of a person's everyday worldview .
This includes everyday habits such as brushing teeth, washing, combing, etc. The need to observe the rules of hygiene and keep one's body clean is instilled in children from early childhood. By observing adults and guided by common sense (being dirty is unpleasant and ugly), children adopt these attitudes and carry them into adulthood. The absence of such attitudes in a person’s everyday worldview will lead to his encounter with misunderstanding and condemnation in society.
Philosophical worldview
Reflections on the meaning of life, on the foundations of being and the purpose of man lead us to the emergence of a philosophical worldview. It is constantly developing and expanding, like any theoretical knowledge, and is enriched with ever new reflections. A characteristic feature of the philosophical worldview, in contrast to the mythological and religious, is that it is based on knowledge. Philosophy comes from objective knowledge about the world, but interprets it through a subjective method - reflection. It is also common for philosophical reflection to rely on the laws of logic, while operating with its own categories and concepts. The philosophical worldview is characterized by systematicity; instead of sensory experience, the leading method of cognition is reflection.
The philosophical worldview has gone through three evolutionary stages of formation:
- cosmocentrism, when the search for answers to questions about the origin of the universe was carried out;
- theocentrism, God is recognized as the primary cause of all things;
- anthropocentrism, when human problems come first, this stage has lasted from the Renaissance to the present day.
The main types of philosophical worldview: idealism and materialism. They arose at the dawn of humanity. The idealistic worldview considers the ideal to be the main principle of the world: spiritual, mental, mental phenomena. Materialism, on the contrary, refers to matter as the primary principle, that is, things, objects and bodies. Thus, philosophy not only comprehends questions about man’s place on Earth and his significance, but also reflects on the primary sources of the world.
There are also other types of worldview in philosophy: agnosticism, skepticism, and more specific ones: positivism, irrationalism and rationalism, existentialism and others.
Albert Camus: “Man is an absurdity”
Is life worth living?
Have you ever had this question? Probably not. And the life of Albert Camus was literally permeated with despair because this question could not be answered in the affirmative. A person in this world is like Sisyphus, endlessly doing the same meaningless work. There is no way out of this situation, no matter what a person does, he will always remain a slave to life.
Man is an absurd creature, wrong, illogical. Animals have needs, and there are things in the world that can satisfy them. A person has a need for meaning - for something that does not exist.
The human being is such that it requires meaning in everything.
However, its very existence is meaningless. Where there should be a sense of meaning, there turns out to be nothing, emptiness. Everything is deprived of its basis, not a single value has a foundation.
Camus' existential philosophy is very pessimistic. But you must admit, there are certain reasons for pessimism.
Scientific worldview
In the course of the development of human thought, new types of worldviews appear. The scientific explanation of the world is presented in the form of general knowledge about its organization and structure. It strives to answer the main questions of existence reasonably and rationally.
Distinctive features of the scientific worldview: systematicity and integrity, based on logic, and not on faith or feeling. It is based solely on knowledge, tested and confirmed, or on logical hypotheses. The scientific worldview answers questions about the laws of existence of the objective world, but, unlike other types, does not reflect on the attitude towards them.
Since a worldview is always realized in the form of values and life guidelines, science creates a cognitive reserve that becomes the basis for behavior.
Karl Popper: “A good scientific theory can be falsified”
In your opinion, if there are two scientific theories and one of them is easily refuted, and the other is completely impossible to undermine, which one will be more scientific?
Popper, a methodologist of science, showed that the criterion of scientificity is falsifiability, that is, the possibility of refutation. A theory must not only have a coherent proof, it must have the potential to be broken.
For example, the statement “the soul exists” cannot be considered scientific because it is impossible to imagine how to refute it. After all, if the soul is immaterial, then how can you be sure whether it exists? But the statement “all plants carry out photosynthesis” is quite scientific, since in order to refute it, it is enough to find at least one plant that does not convert light energy. It is quite possible that it will never be found, but the very possibility of disproving the theory should be obvious.
This is the fate of any scientific knowledge: it is never absolute and is always ready to resign.
