The worldview is the way in which reality is interpreted according to the culture and beliefs of a given society. This vision of the world can be global or personal and depend on the time, the education received or other factors..
The idea of worldview was proposed by the philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey in his work Introduction to Human Sciences. The term comes from Weltanschauung, a German word formed by the union of two terms: welt, what does world mean, and anschauen, which can be translated as "observe" or "look".
However, before this contribution there were authors who dealt with the worldview. In Spanish, this term comes from the Greek cosmos, which designated the universe understood as an ordered mole, and of vision. Philosophers of Ancient Greece, such as Aristotle, already described in their works the worldview as he understood it.
The first worldviews were based on myths, such as the Mesoamerican or the Egyptian. Later, science came to occupy a central role in understanding the world.
One of the main characteristics of the worldview as a concept is that it encompasses all aspects of reality. All vital areas, from religion to politics, through philosophy or morality are part of a worldview.
The human being has been described on many occasions as a social animal. This characteristic is essential to create any individual worldview..
Thus, without culture, relationships with other people or education, it would be impossible for anyone to have their own worldview.
This concept implies an interpretation of the world around us. This, however, does not mean that it is a purely objective description of the universe, but rather that it is shaped by the beliefs of each individual..
For this reason, many worldviews are based on religion or politics, two areas that give people a general framework from which to interpret reality..
The first worldviews had as a reference the mythology of each people. These, through myths, tried to explain aspects that ranged from their own appearance on the planet to natural phenomena.
Mythological accounts attributed each event to gods or other supernatural creatures and offered human beings an explanation about the world and their position in it, that is, a worldview.
With the emergence of scientific thought, myths ceased to be the basis for understanding the world. The discoveries contributed by science thus gave rise to scientific worldviews.
Science tried to be governed by objective and rational criteria and explain reality without using symbols or spiritual elements.
All art, including literature, is immersed in a worldview determined by the culture of the time and place..
On the one hand, by analyzing works of art, one can know the worldview in which it was created. At the same time, art also acts as a creator of worldview as a cultural element.
All human beings are born into a social culture, which determines their worldview. In this sense, education is a fundamental element in the creation of a vision of the world.
The importance of education can be seen in places where its quality is low or where some of the children cannot access it. In these cases, knowledge about their environment is much poorer, which decisively affects the formation of a worldview..
In general terms, it is considered that worldviews are as many as there are cultures, beliefs or ideologies on the planet. However, Wilhelm Dilthey divided them into three large types within which they can all be included.
These three categories, however, are not presented in a pure way. In this way, each type of worldview can be the most dominant, but without excluding elements of the other classes..
The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) left his ideas about worldview in his works. This thinker collected some of Plato's contributions to give his own vision of what the universe was like.
According to Aristotle, the Earth was the center of the universe and, around it, both the Moon and the planets revolved. In his worldview, the natural state was rest and each element had the natural tendency to occupy its space..
On the other hand, the philosopher also developed the so-called hilemorphic theory, which conceived that the essence of each object was made up of matter and form. The first was what could be perceived, while the second allowed matter to be understood.
During the Middle Ages, the worldview was centered on religion. God became the center and cause of everything that existed and any departure from this belief was considered heresy..
Mechanists conceived of the world as if it were a machine. The causes of all phenomena was the physical influence between each material element.
This thought denied that there were spiritual beings, including gods. Their place was taken by matter, natural laws, and determinism..
Descartes (1596-1650) considered Nature to be a kind of machine or, at least, to function as one. Thus, reality was interpreted according to the movements of mechanics.
Although the worldview of the various Mesoamerican peoples had differences, there were some common elements when interpreting reality.
Among the civilizations that existed in Mesoamerica, the Mexica, the Mayan, the Olmec or the Teotihuacan stood out. All of them had myths about the creation of the world and human beings by the gods. The Earth was, for them, the center of the universe and they divided the sky and the underworld into several levels.
Another element of his worldview was the belief in the existence of various realities prior to his time. These ages were called "suns". According to the Mesoamerican peoples, they lived in the fifth sun.
The scientific worldview is based on the knowledge provided by science. This type of worldview is intended to take into account all the scientific phenomena discovered at a given time..
Three of the most relevant scientific disciplines in these worldviews are astronomy, cosmology and physics..
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