1.3. Philosophy as Theoretical Basis of Worldview

Worldview is a system of generalized sensibilities, of intuitive notions and theoretical views of the surrounding world and man’s place in it, man’s many-sided relations to the world, to himself and to other people; a system of the basic orientation in life, not always consciously realized by an individual, a definite social group of society; their convictions, ideals and value-orientations, their socio-political, moral, aesthetic and religious principles of knowledge and judgments.

Worldview, as academician V.I. Shynkaruk considered, is a form of social consciousness through which man realizes and appraises the surrounding world as the world of his own being and finds his particular position in it.

Worldview is a spiritual and intellectual structure with many levels the one that combines everyday notions comprising rational and irrational elements, reason and prejudices, scientific, artistic and political views. Two horizontal levels of the worldview are: sensual – emotions, images, perceptions, and rational – knowledge, understanding.

The structure of worldview

There are four main components in the worldview structure:

1. The cognitive aspect is based on generalized knowledge: everyday, scientific, professional, etc. It represents a specific concrete and universal world picture. It systematizes the results of individual and social cognition, styles of thinking of any community or epoch.

2. The value-normative aspect includes values, ideals, convictions, beliefs and norms. People’s activity is directed by some definite social ideals. Value is an attribute of any subject, any phenomenon that must satisfy people’s needs and desires. People’s ideas of good and evil, happiness and unhappiness, purport and sense of life can be included into the man’s system of values, a sort of hierarchy of values, where life and safety are the highest. Absolute values estimated by people become social ideals. In the process of interaction people work out some definite social norms: moral, religious and legal. These norms regulate man’s behavior correlating it with values.

3. The moral-volitional aspect means that man should attempt efforts to convert these ideals, norms and values into his own convictions, outlooks, believes and cultivate psychological readiness for actions.

4. The practical aspect of the worldview is man’s actual readiness for definite type of behavior in some particular situations. The worldview would have quite an abstract character without this practical component.

Historical forms of worldview

1. Mythological worldview.

It appeared at the earliest stages of human development. Myth is a legend of gods and heroes’ life in the invisible world. There were two types of myth:

1. Cosmological (structure of nature, its functions, origin and functioning);

2. Human life (mystery of birth and death, everyday life, experience).

A primeval myth was not a story which was told but the reality in which people lived. It was a kind of the practical guidance for activity in the primeval society. The aim and purport of ancient myths was not exactly to give people knowledge, but rather to set some social aims and approve models of behavior and beliefs. So, the myth was not an initial form of knowledge, but rather it indicated a particular type of natural and social life. As the earliest form of human culture, the myth combined primitive knowledge, religious beliefs, morals, aesthetic and emotional estimation of situations. In mythology man manifested himself as being completely identified with the nature, as its inseparable part.

The main principle of mythology was a genetic method. Ancient myths usually included two aspects: diachronical and synchronical. Thus, the past was connected with the future and it provided spiritual succession of generations. The main importance and significance of myths was that they established harmony between man and the world, nature and society, society and an individual and, thus, made certain stability and inner self-agreement possible.

Mythological world perception was based on belief and expediency. It dealt with symbol and image and did not suppose any doubt.

2. Religious worldview.

In the primeval society religion was closely connected with mythology. But the specificity of religion is its system of worship, i.e. the system of ritual actions which is aimed at establishing special relations with the supernatural.

Religious worldview doubled the world: one was on this side of the grave, which is unfair and evil and the other – the after death world which is beautiful good and kind.

Worldview constructions involved in a system of worship acquired the character of dogmas. It gave a particular spiritual-practical character to this type of worldview. Religion was directed into the future, better life. Religion permitted no doubt either as it was considered the Spirit of heartlessly established order. The main function of religion has always been to help man to get over historically changeable transient aspects of his being and to raise man’s soul to something higher, eternal and lofty.

Religious worldview dealt with symbol and image and did not suppose any doubt either but it asserted a new idea of salvation, the hope for better life.

3. Philosophical worldview.

With the development of human society, man realized some definite laws and regularities, man’s cognitive abilities advanced greatly. Man got a new form of mastering worldview problems, it took on a theoretical character. Images and symbols of the mythological worldview were replaced by reason. Thus, this is the way philosophy was born as an attempt to solve different worldview problems by means of reason - thinking, using concepts, categories, logic.

Philosophy is a theoretical level of worldview. It appeared in the form of knowledge and had got a systematic character. This brings it closer to science. Actually, at early stages of human development the theoretical form of investigation of reality was called philosophy. But later, when much of experience had been accumulated, methods were perfected and therefore certain differentiation of theoretical forms of studying the reality took place. Many individual sciences appeared. As for philosophy, it gained a new content. Its subject matter and functions had been greatly changed. Aristotle considered philosophy as a Missis of science. And he did not exaggerate as its maternity level was much higher than that of any other branches of science.

Philosophy is intrinsic to investigating the world beyond the limits of man’s experience. No experience can afford to understand the world as integral, endless in space and eternal in time, reality that surpasses immeasurably man’s abilities that actually exists, and people should constantly take it into consideration. Thus, the principles most intrinsic to philosophy are universality and substantiality.

Universality means that during all the history of culture philosophy tried to produce universal knowledge and universal principles of spiritual-moral life.

Substantiality means an investigation of the essence of the world, seeking for some constant basis, initial points of everything to explain the world, its structure and functioning not genetically, but on a universal basis.

And there is another thing that should be mentioned. Philosophers tried to call everything into question to reflect everyday life, one’s own activity, norms and traditions. They doubted in what is called “common sense”. That is typically a philosophical way of thinking to compare with mythology and religion

Philosophical worldview is characterized by its theoretical character. Images and symbols of the mythological and religious worldview were being replaced by reason. Philosophy tried to solve different worldview problems by means of reason, thinking, using logic and its elements: concepts, categories and laws.

In the history of philosophy there formed two different approaches in explaining the surrounding world: materialism and idealism.

Materialism takes the world which exists objectively and independently of the consciousness of man and mankind. Explanation of the world from the world itself is the worldview and methodological principle of materialism. In its development materialism passed through several significant stages from the naïve form in antiquity through mechanical and metaphysical forms to dialectical materialism.

Idealism holds the opposite view, insisting that the development of the world is determined by the spiritual element. Idealism also has various forms. Thus, objective idealism recognizes the existence of a real world outside man, but it is believed that underlying it is reason. The irrationalist variety of objective idealism (Schopenhauer and others) postulate an unconscious unreasonable element as the basis of being (blind will, representation and will). From the point of view of subjective idealism, the objective world, independent of man, does not exist, it is the product of man’s subjective cognitive abilities, sensations and perceptions. Hence, the fundamental idea of this philosophical system (Berkeley or Mach) is that: things are complexes of sensations and to exist means to be perceived by man’s sense organs. Subjective idealism insists that our attempts to go beyond consciousness are in vain and that the existence of an outside world independent of our mind is therefore impossible to prove. Indeed, we know the world as it is given to man but that does not mean that the perception of the world is the world itself. Even everyday experience demonstrates that the being of things does not depend on the act of their perception. A logical development of the ideas of subjective idealism leads to solipsism, to the assertion that nothing but the self exists. If subjective idealism locks itself within the sphere of the cognizing individual and the sensuous form of his cognition, objective idealism, on the contrary, lifts the results of human thoughts, of man’s entire culture to an absolute, ascribing to it absolutely independent suprapersonal being and active power. This logic of human thought is expanded to cover the whole world becoming the logic of being itself.

The other important philosophical problem that has been discussing through the ages is the question of whether the world is knowable. Can man grasp its objective laws? Those who believe that the world is in principle unknowable are called agnostics. The most striking example of agnosticism is religious philosophy which rejects the knowability of the world in its desire to assert the primacy of faith over reason.