Brilliant read, thank you Paul! I've found that reading broadly across various world views brings great clarity on the influences behind "Western" thought. Much of our modern popular culture is inspired by myths and concepts borrowed from other cultures. Subjects like psychology or art therapy, Jung's mandalas for example. I'm also restless with curiosity and would be terrified if I were any other way. I'm reminded of my final secondary school year when I joined an alpha group to see what Christianity was about too. I'm back wondering more than a decade later. Life is truly stranger than fiction sometimes - I'm also wondering what the holographic universe theory means these days. Finding the "Capital T Truth" has always been important to me, so I look forward to your future pieces on world view and if objectivity really exists at all.
Thanks for this. I identify with so much of what you said. The constant pursuit pursuit of capital T truth, the constant exploration, visiting, revisiting. Restless curiosity. These are all things that I live with daily. I am not a Christian, but I am in a Christian book club just so I can understand how they see the world.
For the last 15-ish years, I've been almost militant about pointing out the ignorance of religious believers. I'd agree, rather snobbishly, with an attitude like Dawkins response to the "what if you're wrong question?" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mmskXXetcg). Meanwhile, I'd completely bypassed the self-questioning: "well, what if I'M wrong?" For example, despite not believing, I'm VERY culturally Christian, with the moral framework deeply embedded.
As an antidote, a helpful lens that someone told me, is that when you say anything is true, you have to give it a % probability weight (very helpful when quoting "studies you read").
For example: "there is no god and I'm 95% sure about it." This practice forces some humility. And even if your % is wildly off, the point is to try and be more honest with yourself.
Interesting Rick. I like the probability approach. It changes how your beliefs are perceived by others for sure. The next question would be, of course, on what basis are you generating these probabilities?
It’s amazing how much love can change one’s worldview. I’m almost 45, and I’ve been in a relationship for the past almost six years. It’s not my first relationship, but it is the first where I'm challenged to express my feelings and listen to another person’s feelings—a true, honest, loving relationship full of understanding and respect. WOW does that impact your worldview! Really listening to someone else and seeing how they are experiencing reality is a spiritual awakening (look at me, saying “spiritual.” I would have never said that word six years ago). Spiritual not in a religious sense, but in a philosophical one.
I loved your exercises and questions, and the idea of one’s personal philosophical biography. One thing I would say is that it’s very mental. But our existence is also physical, and our physical reality has a huge impact on our worldview. “View” is directly connected to our senses.
I’d propose your following/students/posse—or whatever you call us—do this simple exercise:
1) Look out the window for a few minutes.
2) After looking for a while, if you’re tall, get on your knees; if you’re short, stand on a chair.
It makes total sense that a loving and intimate relationship can have this impact because two worldviews are coming together to create something utterly unique. One of the goals of the worldviews analysis approach is to help people understand each other and grow together.
Thanks Paul, this is a really important essay. I think limited worldview is close to the source of fear that is making such a mess of everything.
I was raised in the UK in a religious family and rebelled against that particular view, I think from first breath. But I benefitted greatly from it, not least through education and an academic profession. But in 1987 I began a postdoc in Zimbabwe and stayed in southern Africa for nearly a decade. Now the people there have a different take despite colonialism. I didn't go all bush drums and tribal dancing but I did get to understand a little of otherness to what I knew.
Whenever students ask me for career advice I just say, go live in another culture for a least a year, then decide what you want to do.
When we take the time to truly see another’s worldview, we stretch the boundaries of our own awareness. Without contrast, reflection, and curiosity, our understanding remains limited.
To explore another’s perspective is to hold up a mirror to our own beliefs, and in doing so, we either deepen them or dissolve what no longer serves.
Understanding others is not separation, it is sacred expansion.
I'm curious, you begin by honoring the limitation of one’s worldview, but end with a gesture of access to everyone else's. How did limitation become permission? If anything, the deeper we grasp our own fragmentation, the less inclined we are to assume coherence in others.
Thank you! I appreciated your thoughts! Your question, "How did you arrive at your current worldview?" reminded me of when my mom said to me, with great indignation, "It was when you were hitchhiking around Europe at age 20 that you became a liberal!" You might be right mom, you might be right...
To suggest that one cannot understand their own worldview without understanding another assumes a symmetry that rarely exists. Our fragmentation precedes our frameworks. Misunderstanding is not merely a lack of exposure, it is the natural consequence of epistemic divergence. Clarity, in my opinion does not arise from aligning mirrors, but from confronting the distortions they reveal.
Thanks for taking the time to write this wonderful comment.
I appreciate and agree with so much of what you said here. I struggle a lot with the question of when curiosity and endless searching and questioning is too much. When should we stop questioning and go deeper into one perspective? Or, is my purpose to endlessly question? Is that a stable worldview to have? Perhaps that is the philosopher’s approach to life?
I am glad you found peace in your beliefs and can live with conviction. It is sad when people think that a certain set of beliefs is inherently closed minded without understanding how people came to hold certain beliefs through lived experience and exploration.
Brilliant read, thank you Paul! I've found that reading broadly across various world views brings great clarity on the influences behind "Western" thought. Much of our modern popular culture is inspired by myths and concepts borrowed from other cultures. Subjects like psychology or art therapy, Jung's mandalas for example. I'm also restless with curiosity and would be terrified if I were any other way. I'm reminded of my final secondary school year when I joined an alpha group to see what Christianity was about too. I'm back wondering more than a decade later. Life is truly stranger than fiction sometimes - I'm also wondering what the holographic universe theory means these days. Finding the "Capital T Truth" has always been important to me, so I look forward to your future pieces on world view and if objectivity really exists at all.
Thanks for this. I identify with so much of what you said. The constant pursuit pursuit of capital T truth, the constant exploration, visiting, revisiting. Restless curiosity. These are all things that I live with daily. I am not a Christian, but I am in a Christian book club just so I can understand how they see the world.
For the last 15-ish years, I've been almost militant about pointing out the ignorance of religious believers. I'd agree, rather snobbishly, with an attitude like Dawkins response to the "what if you're wrong question?" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mmskXXetcg). Meanwhile, I'd completely bypassed the self-questioning: "well, what if I'M wrong?" For example, despite not believing, I'm VERY culturally Christian, with the moral framework deeply embedded.
As an antidote, a helpful lens that someone told me, is that when you say anything is true, you have to give it a % probability weight (very helpful when quoting "studies you read").
For example: "there is no god and I'm 95% sure about it." This practice forces some humility. And even if your % is wildly off, the point is to try and be more honest with yourself.
Interesting Rick. I like the probability approach. It changes how your beliefs are perceived by others for sure. The next question would be, of course, on what basis are you generating these probabilities?
It’s amazing how much love can change one’s worldview. I’m almost 45, and I’ve been in a relationship for the past almost six years. It’s not my first relationship, but it is the first where I'm challenged to express my feelings and listen to another person’s feelings—a true, honest, loving relationship full of understanding and respect. WOW does that impact your worldview! Really listening to someone else and seeing how they are experiencing reality is a spiritual awakening (look at me, saying “spiritual.” I would have never said that word six years ago). Spiritual not in a religious sense, but in a philosophical one.
I loved your exercises and questions, and the idea of one’s personal philosophical biography. One thing I would say is that it’s very mental. But our existence is also physical, and our physical reality has a huge impact on our worldview. “View” is directly connected to our senses.
I’d propose your following/students/posse—or whatever you call us—do this simple exercise:
1) Look out the window for a few minutes.
2) After looking for a while, if you’re tall, get on your knees; if you’re short, stand on a chair.
3) Look out the same window for a few minutes.
4) Enjoy your new worldview.
Thanks for another great post!
Ramiro,
Thanks for this comment, I love it.
It makes total sense that a loving and intimate relationship can have this impact because two worldviews are coming together to create something utterly unique. One of the goals of the worldviews analysis approach is to help people understand each other and grow together.
Thanks Paul, this is a really important essay. I think limited worldview is close to the source of fear that is making such a mess of everything.
I was raised in the UK in a religious family and rebelled against that particular view, I think from first breath. But I benefitted greatly from it, not least through education and an academic profession. But in 1987 I began a postdoc in Zimbabwe and stayed in southern Africa for nearly a decade. Now the people there have a different take despite colonialism. I didn't go all bush drums and tribal dancing but I did get to understand a little of otherness to what I knew.
Whenever students ask me for career advice I just say, go live in another culture for a least a year, then decide what you want to do.
Profound truth.
When we take the time to truly see another’s worldview, we stretch the boundaries of our own awareness. Without contrast, reflection, and curiosity, our understanding remains limited.
To explore another’s perspective is to hold up a mirror to our own beliefs, and in doing so, we either deepen them or dissolve what no longer serves.
Understanding others is not separation, it is sacred expansion.
Thanks for this Zenzi.
You said it better than I could.
And if you truly understand your own, you realize how limited it was to begin with, and then you begin to understand everyone else’s.
I'm curious, you begin by honoring the limitation of one’s worldview, but end with a gesture of access to everyone else's. How did limitation become permission? If anything, the deeper we grasp our own fragmentation, the less inclined we are to assume coherence in others.
You said it better than my attempt.
You don’t grasp others’ worldview, you understand the limitations of all of them.
Ahhh, okay. I rarely hear anyone who has reached the point of understanding this and it's ontological implications. So I had to clarify.
Only read title and subtitle but big agree!
Thank you! I appreciated your thoughts! Your question, "How did you arrive at your current worldview?" reminded me of when my mom said to me, with great indignation, "It was when you were hitchhiking around Europe at age 20 that you became a liberal!" You might be right mom, you might be right...
Haha, thanks for sharing this little anecdote.
To suggest that one cannot understand their own worldview without understanding another assumes a symmetry that rarely exists. Our fragmentation precedes our frameworks. Misunderstanding is not merely a lack of exposure, it is the natural consequence of epistemic divergence. Clarity, in my opinion does not arise from aligning mirrors, but from confronting the distortions they reveal.
your own worldview is the hardest to understand!
Well said, Paul.
Thanks for taking the time to write this wonderful comment.
I appreciate and agree with so much of what you said here. I struggle a lot with the question of when curiosity and endless searching and questioning is too much. When should we stop questioning and go deeper into one perspective? Or, is my purpose to endlessly question? Is that a stable worldview to have? Perhaps that is the philosopher’s approach to life?
I am glad you found peace in your beliefs and can live with conviction. It is sad when people think that a certain set of beliefs is inherently closed minded without understanding how people came to hold certain beliefs through lived experience and exploration.