Worldview: what is it and what elements influence it?

Let's see what worldview is and how it gives rise to different ways of seeing the world.

Depending on the specific moment we analyze and the culture we use to analyze the world, we will obtain very different visions.

We will try to delve into the concept of worldview in order to understand in more detail the different ways of seeing the world. in order to understand in more detail the implications of this term. Likewise, we will know which are the main features that it takes into account and we will be able to support ourselves in different practical examples.

What is worldview?

The cosmovision is a term used to refer to the vision of the world that a person or a society has at a certain moment and under some concrete criteria.. Therefore, this vision will reflect the perception, concepts and evaluations that this person or group of people are making about the world. Therefore, it is an interpretation that these individuals make about the perceived reality.

In linguistic terms, the word worldview is a translation of the German term Weltanschauung, which literally means to observe the world. This concept was introduced by Wilhelm Dilthey, a 19th century German philosopher and psychologist (as well as cultivating other sciences).

This author was a representative of hermeneutics and as such considered that the individual's experiences not only had cognitive components, but also the part corresponding to the emotions and even the moral values associated with each event were fundamental to have a complete perception of reality.

The cosmovision, therefore, what it offers us is a framework with the principles that govern the way of seeing the world according to its own inhabitants and from which all aspects of the reality of these people will be interpreted. of these people. It would be, therefore, the filter through which they perceive the characteristics of the world.

Logically, there is no single worldview; there will be as many as societies and moments in history we analyze. Some will share to a greater or lesser extent a series of traits, depending on their cultural proximity, while others will be at the antipodes, giving greater relevance in their analysis of the world to totally different values, for example.

Different classifications of worldview

We have already seen that worldview affects the perception and interpretation of all elements of reality of a group of people. However, depending on the variable on which we place the emphasis, we will discover that very different typologies can be established. Let's take a look at some of the main ones.

1. According to religion

Obviously, religion has historically been one of the most powerful cultural elements. Therefore, this element will represent one of the main variables on which to establish a worldview. Religion tries to establish on believers a series of behaviors that they must carry out for reasons that go beyond the earthly.

For centuries and even millennia, different religions have created a very particular vision of the world that has diverged from that of other faiths. Depending on their origin, some may establish similarities in some aspects, as is the case, for example, with Christianity and Judaism. One could even observe elements in common between these and Islam, since all three belong to the so-called Abrahamic religions.

However, if we explore religions with totally isolated origins, we will discover that the worldview that the faithful possess differs greatly from that which can be offered by the aforementioned monotheistic religions.

The more power religion has in a given society, the closer it will come to fundamentalism, i.e., to the literal interpretation of the religion.that is, to the literal interpretation of its sacred texts. In such cases, the worldview will be as dictated by those writings, since the followers of that religion will believe all the precepts found therein, no matter how implausible they may seem to a person outside that religion.

2. According to philosophy

But if there is a field of knowledge especially relevant in the development of the worldview, it is that of philosophy, precisely because it tries to explain reality itself. Therefore, we can anticipate that, depending on the different philosophical thoughts that have governed certain societies and cultures over time, very different conceptions of the world will have been maintained.

In ancient Greece, the cradle of philosophy, the great thinkers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, among others, established a series of currents that created a worldview for the society of the time, that is, a way of seeing and understanding their world. But they were not the only ones. Intellectuals from many other places and different periods have done the same, adding new ways of understanding reality..

Therefore, philosophy would be another of the most appropriate ways to establish a differentiation between various worldviews, in this case according to the philosophical current that underlies that conception.

3. According to attitude

But religion and philosophy are not the only ways to study the worldview of a society. There are other ways to do so, such as that provided by the attitudes of the people who make up that group. In this sense, the way of being and thinking would be acting directly as a filter when constructing the idea of the world around them..

The attitude of a society, in general terms, can provide a more or less pessimistic worldview, for example. They may see the world in a peaceful way or, on the contrary, see it as a hostile place. In short, they will attribute to reality the very characteristics that they perceive in their attitudes.

4. According to ideology

We cannot forget ideologies and values as another important way of establishing a worldview at a given time and place. Political ideas, for example, have been as powerful in some societies as religious ideas were at other times in history.. Therefore, this will be one of the variables to take into account if we want to know what is the way of perceiving the world of a certain group.

Ideas and political movements as powerful as communism, fascism, socialism or liberalism, to give just a few examples, have largely determined how the inhabitants of a nation have perceived the world around them at that time. But it is not just a matter of political ideologies. Movements such as environmentalism and feminism also have a similar influence.

This category also includes the different currents of economic thought, such as capitalism, liberalism and protectionism.. These ideologies are so complex that they establish a framework in people's way of life and of course this directly affects the way they see the world, that is, their worldview.

5. According to language

Language is a tool thanks to which human beings structure our speech, but also our thoughts. Therefore, if a given language is somehow delimiting the way we think, it will certainly have an influence in helping us to create the conception of reality.

In this sense, language would be another of the criteria that would make it possible to establish a classification of the different worldviews that societies may have.. Therefore, those individuals who share a language, regardless of whether they are in different countries, will share a part of that worldview, since they use the same language.

It is not only about the language itself, but about what underlies this concept. That is to say, when several nations share a language, they do so because they somehow have a common past, a part of history that united them and for which, although they have taken different paths, they maintain ties that unite them.

In fact, Wilhelm von Humboldt, a philologist and philosopher born in ancient Prussia, maintained that in order to understand the worldview of a particular place it was necessary to know the language, for according to him, these two elements were inextricably linked. Humboldt did not see language as a restriction to grasp reality, quite the contrary. For him language was a form of expression of creativity.

Therefore, having a particular language made it possible to construct a rich and unique worldview.The language would be different from that which could be developed by individuals from another region with another language, which would also be rich and unique. In other words, what the language would be providing was an original and creative way of experiencing reality and therefore of having an unrepeatable worldview.

This would be the last of the main ways of classifying the types of worldviews that we can find, although depending on the criteria we want to use, there would be many other possibilities.

Bibliographical references:

• Cano, M., Mestres, F., Vives-Rego, J. (2016). The Weltanschauung*(worldview) in 21st century environmental behavior: Changes and consequences. Ludus vitalis.
• DeWitt, R. (2010). Cosmovisions. An introduction to the history and philosophy of science. Buridan Library.
• Santos, U.F., (1981). Philosophy and worldview. Anuario Filosófico.
• Underhill, J.W. (2011). Creating worldviews: metaphor, ideology and language. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.