World view

A World View, also spelled as worldview is a term calqued from the German word Weltanschauung ("look onto the world"). The German word is also in wide use in English, as well as the "translated" form world outlook.

One of the most important concepts in cognitive philosophy and generative sciences is that of the German concept of ‘Weltanschauung’. This expression refers to the 'wide worldview' or 'wide world perception' of a people. 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 syntactic structures and untranslatable connotations and its denotations.

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A map of the world on the basis of Weltanschauung crosses across the political borders. This is due to the reason that, the weltanschauung is the product of not only political borders but also of the common experiences of a people from a geographical region, environmental-climatic conditions, the economic resources available, socio-cultural systems and the linguistic family of the people.

A world view describes a consistent (to a varying degree) and integral sense of existence and provides a framework for generating, sustaining and applying knowledge.

The term denotes a comprehensive set of opinions, seen as an organic unity, about the world as the medium and exercise of human existence: politics, economics, religion, culture, science, human values.

At all times, religious and political teachings were bases for forming worldviews; in fact, they were often worldviews themselves. For example, Christianity, Islam, socialism, marxism, scientology may be called worldviews; at least they generate clearly identifiable worldviews.

Historically, world views changed little and slowly, achieving wide (and often unquestioning) support. Postmodernism has encouraged a proliferation of ever-changing Weltanschauungen.

Related notions

paradigm, social reality, perspective, point of view, belief and ideology

Related topics

religion, philosophy, metaphysics, ontology.