What is Worldview Encounters?
Worldview Encounters is a weekly Substack publication that aims to help its readers learn about and engage with the different ways of thinking and living in the world. These ways of thinking and living we term ‘worldviews’. This word covers psychological, cultural, political, spiritual, religious and scientific concerns in a comprehensive manner while also capturing the idea that we view the world from somewhere. It reminds us of our own assumptions and advises us to (at least temporarily) suspend our judgment when first encountering a worldview different from our own.
On a weekly basis, we will examine both common and uncommon worldviews from different perspectives. These views will be met on their own terms and they will be contrasted with competing ones. We will hear their claims to truth and learn the value they may hold, while uncovering the presuppositions that both uphold and constrain them. This exploration is not likely to lead to the formulation of one ultimate worldview, but it may enable us to better understand our fellow human beings and to revise and improve our own view of the world. In addition to providing an account of reality, worldviews should also make us feel at home in the world. As such, the task Worldview Encounters sets itself is not limited to exposing you to convincing accounts of reality – it equally aims to explore ways of living that are best suited for a fulfilling existence.
Finally, we hope to stimulate an intellectual community of people figuring out their worldviews and engaging in tolerant discussion with different worldviews. You, the reader, are invited to contribute your views and ideas in the comment section or by mailing us.
Defining worldview
For a good understanding of the topic of this Substack, we give you our definition of worldview:
A worldview is a set of assumptions, tacit and/or explicit, and their derived beliefs and attitudes that sets up a frame of reference or conceptual framework for interpretation and action. This framework is pre-configured by experience—personal and cultural—to select certain features of the world as being explanatory, others as being in need of explanation, and still others as being in need of correction. It makes claims about how the world is and how it functions, thereby performing social, psychological, and existential or spiritual functions essential to individual and collective life. The framework aims to be comprehensive or total, while being composed of worldview fragments that are applicable only to some aspect(s) of the world; it can be constructed or adopted, lived (put in practice) or merely discursive, and individual or collective.
This definition is explored in-depth in our article on the worldview concept. In the same article we also draw on the literature to set up following seven questions to keep in mind when confronted by a worldview:
What is? This question leads to an ontology or a model of reality. A worldview should give some insight into how the world is structured and what entities are present in it.
Where does it all come from? A worldview should put forward some explanatory principles and should present a model of the past.
Where are we going? A worldview should make some predictions and present a model of the future.
What is good and what is bad? This question relates to values. A worldview should provide an axiology or a theory of values that deals with morality, ethics, and aesthetics.
What must we do? Given a set of values, how should we go about realising them? Worldviews should answer these questions by affording principles that guide our actions, thereby giving us a praxeology or theory of actions.
What is true and what is false? This question is about epistemology or theory of knowledge, which determines how and even if we can attain the knowledge sought after in questions one to three.
What makes life meaningful? A worldview should meet the human need for meaning from a personal, social, and cosmic point of view, providing direction and consolation in times of hardship.
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