More about worldviews
A worldview, whether religious or nonreligious,
is personal
insight about reality and meaning, often termed a "life
understanding." Each of us has a worldview. It is our own discernment.
It
develops in part because we have sought some understanding of our own
significance.
Human beings everywhere are desirous of certitude by which to live their
lives. There are what appear to be universal queries for understanding of
important aspects of life and living. An individual’s worldview makes
reply to these universal human queries.
A
worldview consists of basic assumptions and images
that provide a more or less
coherent,
though not necessarily accurate, way of thinking about the world.
The personal insight comprising a worldview will encompass notions of the
existence or nonexistence of the supernatural and a deity or deities; the
origins of the universe and of human life; the source of morality and values and
identification of what is good or evil; how to live one’s life; the meaning of
life and of death; and so on. To greater or lesser degree, people have
qualms regarding their ultimate concerns and obtain reassurances from worldview
coherency.
Much of any person’s worldview is shaped by his or her culture and
upbringing. But, the worldview is not merely a philosophical byproduct of
a person’s culture, like a shadow..” As A.F.C. Wallace in Culture and
Personality (1970) states:
“(A worldview is) the very
skeleton of concrete cognitive assumptions
on which the flesh of customary behavior is hung.”
Accordingly, he continues, the worldview of an individual “…may be
expressed, more or less systematically, in cosmology, philosophy, ethics,
religious ritual, scientific belief, and so on, but it is implicit in almost
every act.” It is a person’s internal
mental framework of cognitive understanding about reality and life meaning.
Developing a Worldview
No infant has a worldview. Each person’s "life understanding"
takes shape over time as the individual grows and develops, as he or she engages
in new events and experiences, interacts with others and with his or her
surroundings, and derives answers to inquiries about life and living from fellow
human beings. Any individual’s worldview is internal and, in the fine
scale, unique.
The “players in” and “process of” early worldview formation for any
child vary across cultural and other variables that influence the child’s
upbringing (e.g., rearing communally or within a nuclear family). In the
United States, the ones who supply answers to queries and facilitate the
formation of a youngster’s worldview are usually parents and/or close family
of the child. Their influence during formative years is powerful, as would
be that of any other significant adults in the child’s life.
Along the way of gaining their worldview perspectives, youngsters hold to
their formulation (assumptions/images) with varying degrees of firmness and
cognitive maturity. Influences in modern society (e.g., powerful
television and other media; “popular culture”) more and more have some
bearing on both the process and outcome.
Altering a Worldview
An adult’s worldview may, but need not, remain consistent. Aspects
may gradually evolve as the person proceeds through his or her life, or there
may be events that compel radical reformation of outlook. For example,
exposure to new ways of thinking through education may induce varying degrees of
changed perspective. Vivid experiences or persuasive encounters may
engender dramatic alteration of outlook. Exposure to different cultural
practices or mores, or changes in geography or living circumstance, or
significant tragedy or success—such experiences may revamp one’s way of
thinking about life and meaning.
Purposeful attempts to modify another person’s worldview understanding may
not be successful. Much interior stress and internal conflict (for the one
who is the target) may attend such an endeavor. [D. H. Esbenshade, using
creationism and evolution as his example, has discussed educators’ challenging
of students’ worldview cognition in “Growing Pains,” Religion &
Education, 26(2).] To the extent that the undertaking directly
confronts the coherency of an extant worldview, the individual may resist or
oppose the undertaking. And even a person induced by intimidation or
persecution to change external expression of worldview may privately hold fast
to his or her outlook.
Perpetuating a Worldview
Since, as Wallace phrased it (above), the “flesh” of customary
behavior is hung on the “skeleton” of assumptions and images in the
worldview, there are stakeholders in the process of any youngster’s
development. Whoever most controls a child's early environment will likely be most influential in
directing the developmental course and bringing about desired ends.
Stakeholders can hope to produce a preferred outcome by exposing a youngster to selected experiences and
instructing him or her by
way of narratives and rituals (along with related plaudits, censure, etc.). A conformist
indoctrination process also may involve screening out of alternative worldview
narratives and experiences, or at least careful managing of a youngster’s
acquaintance with them. Even a broad-minded approach, one which does not
seek to restrict exposure to alternate assumptions or images, will involve instilling
certain "interpretations" and offering up "guidelines."
Conveyed as "helpful" (for understanding the universe, living life
well, gaining meaning of it all, etc.), the intent is that they frame the child's
outlook thenceforth.
American parents or guardians will invest to varying degrees in the
transmission to progeny of their understandings of life and meaning. (Some
care deeply about their child’s development and attempt to inculcate their own
cognitive accounts and traditions with regard to “life understanding.”
Others may devote far less attention to consciously influencing their child’s
course.)
The nation’s own warrant is signaled through the process of
education conducted in its public schools. This warrant ideally is neutral
across the varied worldviews. The public education concentrates on
interpreting the world in secular fashion according to authenticated standards
of knowledge (with broad inter-subjective validity) and molding conduct around common
values of civilized society (with a concomitant respect for the individuality of
personal conscience).
For concerned stakeholders within a household, the picture is more
complicated than was customary in times past. No longer can a family as
readily control major interactions of the child within a general locale, with
the family acting as a unit to accommodate its outlook to local mores. The complexity of and rapid changes within today's culture
are bringing many more
factors to bear. Technological
developments (e.g., television and other electronic media) may increasingly hold sway in shaping of
a youngster's
worldview. These, along with changes in society at large and in schooling
have broadened the reach of additional stakeholders (e.g., advertisers) into the household.
The contemporary situation doubtless presents intense conflicts for those parents
who seek a high degree of command over the shaping of their child's worldview. (Some may opt
for greater control through private schooling or resort to home
schooling.) Even the most liberal of parents may be challenged by an
inability to channel experiences for their progeny toward what they hold in
mind as a hoped-for outcome.
“As the twig is bent, so grows the tree” is a
maxim that expresses well the significance of early influences on the worldview
of any person. But as long as life continues to be lived, a “life
understanding” is susceptible to alteration.
Corrections and comments are invited. [Last
updated: 8/18/06]
Author: Mynga Futrell, Ph.D.
