Worldview is a necessary component of human consciousness, cognition. This is not just one of its elements among many others, but their complex interaction. Diverse “blocks” of knowledge, beliefs, thoughts, feelings, moods, aspirations, hopes, connecting in a world view, appear as a more or less holistic understanding of the people of the world and themselves.
The life of people in society is historical. Slowly, now rapidly, intensively, in time, all the components of the socio-historical process change: technical means and the nature of work, relations between people and the people themselves, their thoughts, feelings, interests. The worldview of human communities, social groups, personalities tactics is subject to historical changes. It actively catches, refracts large and maltese, explicit and hidden processes of social change.
Speaking about the worldview on a large socio-historical scale, they mean extremely common beliefs prevailing at a certain stage of history, principles of cognition, ideals and norms of life activity, that is, they highlight the common features of the intellectual, emotional, spiritual mood of a particular era, and in reality, the worldview is formed in the minds of specific people and is used by individuals and social groups as the life-defining common beliefs. And this means that, apart from the typical, total features, the worldview of each epoch lives, operates in a variety of group and individual variants.
Strictly speaking, each person or social group, singled out by a particular attribute (for example, by class, social status, level of education, profession, etc.) has its own, not completely identical with others, and sometimes very different from they are the most common ideas about the world and life programs, and yet the diversity of options for historically changing worldviews can be identified a number of integrated gradations, types.
Worldview – education is integral. It is fundamentally important connection of its components, their <alloy>, and as in the alloy various combinations of elements, their proportions give different results, so something similar happens with the worldview.
The structure of the worldview includes and plays an important role in it the generalized knowledge of everyday, or vital, professional, scientific. The more solid the stock of knowledge in one or another epoch, of one or another nation or individual, the more serious support can be obtained by the corresponding worldview. The naive, unenlightened consciousness does not have sufficient means for a clear, consistent, rational justification of their views, often turning to fantastic fiction, superstitions and customs.
The degree of cognitive saturation, validity, forethought, internal coherence of a particular worldview is different. Knowledge never fills the entire field of worldview. In addition to knowledge about the world (including the human world), the whole world of human life is also comprehended in the worldview, certain value systems are expressed (ideas of good and evil and others), the images of the past and the future projects are received, and approval is received (condemned). or other ways of life, behavior.
Programs of life, actions, direction of actions are under a two <pillars>: knowledge and values. They are in many ways <polar>, opposite in their essence. Knowledge is driven by the pursuit of truth to an objective comprehension of the real world. The value consciousness is different: it embodies the special attitude of people to everything that happens in accordance with their goals, needs, interests, one way or another understanding of the meaning of life. In the value consciousness, moral, aesthetic (and ideological) ideals are formed.
The most important concepts with which value consciousness has long been associated, were the concepts of good and evil, beauty and ugliness. Through correlation with norms, ideals, evaluation is carried out – determining the value of what is happening. The system of value orientations plays a very important role in the individual and group, social worldview. For all their heterogeneity, the cognitive and axiological ways of exploring the world in human consciousness, life, action must be somehow balanced, brought into agreement. The tense unity of other <polar> components, aspects, worldview levels should also be achieved: feelings and reason, understanding and action, faith and doubt, the theoretical and practical experience of people, understanding of the past and vision of the future. Their correlation, combination, synthesis is a complex and painful spiritual and practical work, designed to ensure the connectedness and integrity of human experience, the entire system of orientations.
Worldview – a complex form of consciousness, encompassing the most diverse “layers” of human experience – is capable of pushing the narrow framework of everyday life, of a particular place and time, relating this person to other people, including those that used to live, will live later. The worldview accumulates the experience of understanding the semantic basis of human life, all new generations of people are attached to the spiritual world of their great-grandfathers, grandfathers, fathers, contemporaries, something, carefully preserving, of something strongly refusing.
So, the worldview is a set of views, assessments, principles that determine the most common vision, understanding of the world.
Perception of the World and Worldview
The intellectual and emotional experiences of people are represented differently in different forms of worldviews. The emotional-psychological side of the worldview at the level of moods, feelings makes up the world perception. The experience of the formation of cognitive images of the world with the use of visual representations refer to the worldview. Cognitive and intellectual side of the worldview is world outlook.
The “intelligence coefficient” of worldviews is different. The degree of their emotional saturation is also different. But one way or another, worldviews include both these <poles>. Even the most mature in thought forms of worldviews are not reduced without a trace only to the intellectual components. A world view is not just a collection of neutral knowledge, impassive assessments, judicious actions. Not only cold-blooded work participates in its formation. mind, but also human emotions.
Life in the natural and social world gives rise in people to a complex range of feelings and experiences. Curiosity, wonder, feelings of oneness with nature, involvement in human history, awe, admiration, awe, anxiety, tension and many others are associated with a worldview. Among the ideological emotions there are colored in the “dark” tone of anxiety, fear, despair. These include feelings of insecurity, helplessness, loss, helplessness, loneliness, sadness, grief, emotional strain. You can fear, worry, root for your loved ones, for your country, people, the future of humanity, for life on Earth, for the fate of culture. At the same time, people also have a whole range (<light>) of emotions: feelings of joy, happiness, harmony, full bodily, mental, intellectual forces, satisfaction with life, their accomplishments.
Combinations of such feelings give variations of the types of human attitudes. The emotional mood can be joyful, optimistic, or dark, pessimistic; selfish or full of spiritual generosity, caring for others; happy or unhappy, etc. In the moods affect the circumstances of people’s lives, differences in their social status, national characteristics, type of culture, individual destinies, temperament, age, health status. The world outlook of a young man, full of strength, is different than the old or hopelessly ill.
Critical, difficult situations of life require great courage and mental strength from people. One of the situations that cause intense experiences is the encounter with death. Powerful impulses of ideology give moral feelings: shame, reproaches of conscience, sense of duty, moral satisfaction, compassion, mercy, as well as their antipodes. In the worldview of one time or another, typical, prevailing moods, <spirit> epochs, countries, or other social forces are expressed.
The emotional world of a person determines, first of all, his worldview, but finds expression in the worldview, including the philosophical outlook. The famous words of the German philosopher I. Kant, for example, can serve as a vivid expression of sublime ideological emotions: <Two things always fill the soul with new and ever stronger surprise and awe, more often and longer we reflect on them – this is the starry sky above me and moral the law is in me. Worldview is a complex interaction of intellectual and emotional components, attitudes and perceptions of the world.
Reason and feelings enter into the fabric of the worldview not in isolation, but in the interconnection, in addition, they are combined with will. This gives the whole worldview a special character. A world view, at least its nodal points, its basis, in fact, is always to become a more or less holistic belief complex.
Entering into the worldview, its various components (knowledge, values, action programs) acquire a new status: they absorb the attitude and position of a person (group of people), are painted with emotions, combined with the will to action. Beliefs are views that are actively accepted by people, corresponding to the entire mentality of their consciousness, life aspirations. In the name of conviction, their motive power is so great — sometimes people risk their lives and even go to die.
New look in the whole composition of the worldview get knowledge. Growing together with the totality of views, positions, feelings, they become more than just knowledge in tendencies, they turn into cognitive beliefs – into a holistic way of seeing, understanding the world, orienting in it.
Moral, legal, political and other views of values, norms, ideals also acquire the power of conviction. In combination with volitional factors, they become the basis of life, behavior, actions of individuals, social groups, nations, nations, and, in the limit, the entire world community.
An important condition (and indicator) for the remelting of views into beliefs is an increasing degree of confidence in their content and meaning. The range of human faith, confidence is wide. It extends from practical, vital, cognitive certainty (or obviousness), that is, completely rational faith, to religious beliefs or even the credulous acceptance of absurd fictions, which are also characteristic of the human consciousness of a certain type and level.
The significant role of beliefs in the composition of the worldview does not exclude the provisions adopted with less certainty or even distrust. Doubt is an obligatory moment of an independent, meaningful position in the field of worldview. A fanatical, unconditional acceptance of one or another system of orientations, growing together with it — without internal criticality, one’s own analysis — is called dogmatism. Life shows that such a position is blind and flawed, does not correspond to a complex, developing reality, moreover, religious, political and other dogmas often turned out to be in the history, including the history of Soviet society, the cause of serious troubles. That is why, asserting today new thinking, it is so important to form a clear, unbiased, bold, creative, flexible understanding of real life in all its complexity. An important role in the shattering of dogmas is played by healthy doubt, thoughtfulness, and criticality. But if they violate the measures, they may give rise to another extreme – skepticism, disbelief in anything, loss of ideals, refusal to serve high goals.
So, the worldview is a complex, tense, contradictory unity of knowledge and values, and intelligence and emotions, world outlook and attitude, rational justification and faith, belief and doubt, socially significant and personal, traditional and creative thinking. In the worldview, there are actually different levels of cognitive depth, logical consistency, intellectual power of arguments, everyday practical and theoretical layers.
Life-daily and theoretical understanding of the world
In all historical epochs, ideological views, ideas based on common sense, extensive and diverse everyday experience have found themselves and continue to be important today. They are often referred to as <life philosophy. This spontaneously folding form of the worldview encompasses a world-view, a mentality of wide sections of society. This layer of consciousness is very important, because it is a mass and really <working> consciousness. That is why, by the way, it is so necessary that the principles of the new political, economic, environmental, social and moral thinking that are being affirmed today in our country touch not a few, but enter the minds of thousands, millions of people, become the impetus of their Life and actions.
The practical worldview is not homogeneous, because it is heterogeneous – according to the nature of education, the level of intellectual, spiritual culture, and according to national, religious and other traditions – its carriers. Hence the breadth of the range of life philosophy, from the most primitive, backward, narrow-minded forms of consciousness to the manifestation of a complete, enlightened common sense, sober, rational life orientation among scientists, artists, politicians, etc.
A kind of life-practical worldview is the views that are formed under the influence of knowledge and experience of people in various fields of activity. So, rightfully they say about the worldview of scientists, engineers, politicians, officials. Generalizations of life experience through the activities of teachers, publicists, writers, representatives of creative professions in various types of art are being introduced into the public consciousness, they really live and function in it. The current situation clearly demonstrates that people who make up the color of science, culture, deeply and extensively reflecting on major, vital problems, have a formative effect on the public worldview.
Ideological ideas that arise in the process of scientific, artistic, political, and other creative work can, to a certain extent, influence the thinking of professional philosophers. A striking example of this is the enormous influence of the works of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor M. Dostoevsky on domestic and world philosophy.
The worldview, expressed in its everyday, typical, mass, elementary manifestations, encompasses not only a rich “memory of the centuries”, convincing life experience, skills, traditions, faith and doubts, but also a lot of prejudices. Such a world view is sometimes poorly protected from mistakes, subject to the influence of unhealthy moods (nationalistic and others), modern (<myths> (for example, vulgarly interpreted equality) and other not quite mature manifestations of public consciousness, not to mention the purposeful influence of those who pursue their narrow egoistic the goals of certain social groups are not immune from such influences and the views of some people who are professionally engaged in scientific, literary, engineering and other work.
The everyday understanding of the world in its massive, everyday forms is spontaneous, it is not distinguished by a thorough forethought, systematic, soundness. That is why logic is not always maintained at this level, sometimes “ends meet”, emotions can overwhelm the mind in critical situations, revealing a lack of common sense. And, finally, everyday thinking gives in to problems that require serious knowledge, a culture of thoughts and feelings, an orientation towards high human values. These features are inherent in the life-practical understanding of the world only in its most mature manifestations. But even at this level, views that form thoughts and actions are still rarely themselves subjected to special critical analysis and reflection.
This is already done at a different, theoretical level of the worldview, to which philosophy also belongs. The concept of a worldview covers a wider range of phenomena than the concept of philosophy. Their correlation can be schematically represented in the form of two concentric circles, where there is a larger worldview, and the smaller one is philosophy.
Unlike all other forms and types of worldview, philosophical systems of views claim to a theoretical worldview the validity of both the content and methods of achieving generalized knowledge of reality, as well as the principles of philosophy and ideals that define the goals, means and nature of people’s activities. The philosopher in the high sense of this elephant is not only himself a carrier, creator, reformer of a certain worldview, but also sees his task in making the worldview in general the subject of his theoretical analysis, special study, be sure to subject him to the critical judgment of reason (the name the three most important philosophical writings of I. Kant: <Critique of Pure Reason>, <Critique of Practical Reason>, <Critique of Judgment Ability>), to recreate the system of world outlook and the most mature intellect form.
However, the gradation considered by us <ordinary theoretical> is insufficient for understanding the uniqueness of the philosophical worldview. It is also necessary to determine the place of philosophy among other socio-historical types of worldview.