Interview Questions about your Worldview

[jshulg]

I'm doing a paper for a class about different worldviews, and I'm looking for at least three people to answer some questions about their worldviews. The questions are based on James Sire's book The Universe Next Door with some modifications. Thanks for helping me out!

1: What is prime reality – the really real? What gives context to your life and is the source of the rest of reality? (i.e. matter, God, cosmos etc.)

2: What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?

3. What is a human being?

4: What happens to a person at death?

5: Why is it possible to know anything at all? How can we know anything?

6: How do we know what is right and wrong? Where do ethics come from?

7: What is the meaning/purpose of human history?

8: What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with your worldview? In other words, what is your purpose or goal in life?

 

[Quintessence]

Interesting set of questions. Better than many others I have seen, but there are still a few that are problematic (but I'll get to that). Could you tell us more about this book? Wondering if I should aim to scope out out from my local public library as an evening read.

1: What is prime reality – the really real? What gives context to your life and is the source of the rest of reality? (i.e. matter, God, cosmos etc.)

In my view, these really are two very different questions that should not be under the same proverbial bullet point. One is asking about a person's metaphysical ontology, the other is asking about metaphysical cosmology. In terms of metaphysical ontology (the first question), it's complicated and not something I will share. With respect to what you and others need to know, I label something "real" when I can know of or experience it in any way. In terms of metaphysical cosmology (the second question), the question rests on a premise that I don't agree with. The question assumes that reality has a source external to itself somehow. This idea makes no sense to me. Then again, I also don't much care about cosmological questions. They've always felt pretty irrelevant, so it's mostly a "I don't know, and I really don't care."

2: What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?

It is what it is. Like any other human, I draw maps of the territory to navigate by as limited by my mammalian biology and environment. Unlike some other humans, I aim to avoid mistaking my maps for the territory, or proclaiming my maps are the "right" ones and others are the "wrong" ones. This, probably because I draw several maps of the territory and swap amongst them depending on circumstances, which is also quite unlike some other humans.

3. What is a human being?

See above. My answer really isn't any different from that one. I suppose I can add that in terms of maps of the territory, I can't help but use the sciences as a go-to map because that's my background. But for questions like this, science-maps are not all that useful. Too much of how humans regard other humans is couched in value judgements for that.

4: What happens to a person at death?

There are a couple of different stories I tell about this. For one, just go consult your biological sciences textbook. For the other, it is a lesson that comes out of ecology and walking the mysteries. In that story, there is no such thing as death. That story is one to tell for another time, perhaps. But if you like none of those stories, pick one you favor. All the stories are interesting.

5: Why is it possible to know anything at all? How can we know anything?

Rather odd questions. Epistemological questions like these have always struck me as off-kilter. I do not ask myself these questions. They are silliness to me. Read some stories told by some philosophers. Or, again, consult our biological sciences textbook, particularly with a deep-dive emphasis in sensory biology and neurology.

6: How do we know what is right and wrong? Where do ethics come from?

Many stories told about this, too. I do not tell stories about "right" and "wrong" as a non-dualist. I tell stories about... well... stories. Maps of territory and perspectives. Humans make this stuff up as they go along. Stories relating to ethics usually have one of two purposes, it seems. One purpose is to cultivate personal character, areté. The other major purpose is to mediate interpersonal relations. Like anything, they are the product of lots of things. Everything, from a certain point of view.

7: What is the meaning/purpose of human history?

Whatever story you want to tell about it. There are countless ways to weave these tales, but to me the important thing is that the stories you tell are expressions of your values and have consequences you find acceptable when those tales are lived. Many of the prevailing narratives about humans in my culture are... well, they are not stories I find favorable. Too much anthropocentrism. Kinda like this question, come to think of it. I don't assign some special purpose to humans.

8: What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with your worldview? In other words, what is your purpose or goal in life?

I like to avoid thinking in these terms. Too grandiose, too much gravitas. Also, focuses much too much on destination, and not enough on the path. To me, it is all about the pathworking. Live and walk in accord with one's sense of honor, or with one's values. Doing otherwise makes life an exercise in great suffering. If you enjoy today, that is enough. There doesn't need to be some sort of grandiose purpose. Be content and at peace in the eternal now.

 

[jshulg]

Thank you for your answers! Would you consider yourself a naturalist or postmodern at all? Also, I'm supposed to reference my interviewees by a first name, age, and occupation. Would you be willing to provide those? As for the book, it is basically a worldview catalog. Using the questions, Sire identifies several worldviews and explores how the dominant worldview in western society has shifted through time. It is definitely a good read!

 

[Quintessence]

It would be interesting to see if Pagan perspectives (historical or contemporary) are represented in that book, though I'd bet that they are not.

As a contemporary Pagan and a Druid, I am most certainly a naturalist. Well, if by that term "naturalist" you mean a student and learner of nature. I suspect you mean it more of the metaphysical sense, in which case I am not that sort of naturalist; I do not follow the assumptions required for the label to be applicable (that is to say, I don't recognize a "supernatural" that contrasts with "natural"). As for postmodernism, I'm only loosely familiar with the term. If by postmodern we mean I prefer to be an impartial observer who describes things rather than dictate norm in some ethnocentric and self-righteous fashion, then the shoe seems to fit.

For names, Quint is good enough. It serves me better than a name I did not choose. For age, you can stick me in the early 30s bracket. I honestly don't think about my age, so that's as far as I get unless I do the math... lol. Occupation-wise, you can put me down as as support/administration for higher education (aka, "serving the university" as in my profile here).

 

[Aupmanyav]

1: What is prime reality – the really real? What gives context to your life and is the source of the rest of reality? (i.e. matter, God, cosmos etc.)
Two separate questions as Quintessence said. Prime reality is physical energy. What gives context is family.

2: What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?
Illusion.

3. What is a human being?
Bag of atoms.

4: What happens to a person at death?
Atoms disperse.

5: Why is it possible to know anything at all? How can we know anything?
Discrimination. Analysis.

6: How do we know what is right and wrong? Where do ethics come from?
Society.

7: What is the meaning/purpose of human history?
Live and let live.

8: What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with your worldview? In other words, what is your purpose or goal in life?
Primarily family, then society, religion, nation, and the wide world.

 

[Kuzcotopia]

I'm doing a paper for a class about different worldviews, and I'm looking for at least three people to answer some questions about their worldviews. The questions are based on James Sire's book The Universe Next Door with some modifications. Thanks for helping me out!

1: What is prime reality – the really real? What gives context to your life and is the source of the rest of reality? (i.e. matter, God, cosmos etc.)

2: What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?

3. What is a human being?

4: What happens to a person at death?

5: Why is it possible to know anything at all? How can we know anything?

6: How do we know what is right and wrong? Where do ethics come from?

7: What is the meaning/purpose of human history?

8: What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with your worldview? In other words, what is your purpose or goal in life?

1. I think it's a really real, but it rests on the assumption that other human beings exist. If I accept there are others outside myself, then I have enough context to accept a number of rational and empirical claims about myself and the world.

2. Temporal?

3. A kind of primate with socialization and reasoning skills.

4. The same thing that happens to a goldfish, a beetle, or a sequoia in a forest fire. . . A cessation of cellular growth and the start of organic decay.

5. It's a series of practical assumptions our brains make. We see patterns, and use these in a web of foundational claims, reenforced by social conventions where the claims are agreed upon. Mistakes and cognative biases are frequent.

6. See number 5.

7. Human history has no meaning or purpose.

8. Me? See number 7.

Thanks, and good luck!

 

[Liu]

1: I believe it to be consciousness and information - but who knows?

2: Might be a mere illusion, might be of the same nature as the internal reality.

3: An animal related to apes. Differs from most other species by being aware of its own existence and by having culture.

4: I don't know. Maybe we completely cease to exist, maybe we get reborn or become spirits or get to another plane of existence. I believe consciousness to be immortal, though, so I don't think we completely stop existing.

5: Because we experience things and that information gets stored in our brains. However, we don't actually know anything. We only know that we exist and that we experience something - or do we?

6: Ethics come both from living together as a group or society and needing rules for that and from individually or instinctively valuing or despising certain things. There is no objective right or wrong; it's all just on the subjective or inter-subjective level.

7: There is no objective purpose, only what you make of it. For us currently history is what brought us into our current situation and something we might be able to learn from.

8: Finding out want it is I truly want and trying to achieve it. Self-improvement by my own standards, while enjoying myself as much as possible.

 

[Laika]

1: What is prime reality – the really real? What gives context to your life and is the source of the rest of reality? (i.e. matter, God, cosmos etc.)

"Matter", or the objectively existing reality given to us by sensation. But a great deal of knowledge is inherited through society so our relationships with other people play a pivitol role too.

2: What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?

It exists objectively, we have knowledge of it through sensation which can be abstracted into concepts and relationships.

I.e. It exists independently if whether I think it exists, and has existed before I was born and will exist after I die.

3. What is a human being?

An animal, an ape. Ideally warm, loving, healthy and with a sense of humour.

Man is a maker, a producer and it is through his capacity to produce that he makes the world around him useful. This capacity to produce is a precondition of complex intellectual and social activity and is what distinguishes us from animals. We can change nature rather than have to adapt to it.

4: What happens to a person at death?

I don't believe there is an afterlife and (I assume) we are purely physical and organic matter, so I guess "decomposition" answers that one.

5: Why is it possible to know anything at all? How can we know anything?

If we have an idea and we put it into practice and it produces our intended outcomes, we "know" that our ideas correspond to objective reality enough to be useful and true. our ideas are however only partially true and dependent on how much we can change objects or relations between them to identify their properties.

6: How do we know what is right and wrong? Where do ethics come from?

A combination of our biological and psychological predispositions (e.g. To happiness as a reflection of our well-being) but also from the way society is organised, legal and moral norms derived from our economic relationships that are not easily changed. Consequently what is considered to be right and wrong by society or the state, can infact be deeply harmful at an individual level. Many causes of suffering exist beyond our power and capacity to control and whilst we may believe they are wrong, it is not necessarily something we can change given our relative insignficance. It is only by the acculumation of power that we can make nature and society serve our interests.

I guess if I put it crudely, the pursuit of power (based primarily on knowledge) as a means to freedom is right and the abuse of power or the wilful lacking of it (such as through ignorance) is wrong.

7: What is the meaning/purpose of human history?

I think it is to progress to greater freedom and power as a realisation of our humanity by science and technology through our capacity to create and produce a world that serves our interests and is conducive to personal and social growth. But power and freedom are in conflict and so it is not always a smooth process of growth and there can be much conflict in realising this potential. Niether freedom nor power are gaurenteed but its continuation and growth are our collective inheritence.

8: What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with your worldview? In other words, what is your purpose or goal in life?

To have at least a minimum level of basic material conditions so that I am comfortable, but also to make some sort of "difference" in the world. We are mortal but our consequences exceed our own individual life and can transcend it in a sense.

Best of luck btw.

 

[Aštra’el]

1: What is prime reality – the really real?What gives context to your life and is the source of the rest of reality? (i.e. matter, God, cosmos etc.)

The Macrocosm

2: What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?

It exists, and we exist within it.

3. What is a human being?

A microcosm within the Macrocosm

4: What happens to a person at death?

A person becomes one with the Macrocosm.

5: Why is it possible to know anything at all? How can we know anything?

Our brains make it possible.

6: How do we know what is right and wrong? Where do ethics come from?

Subjective morality, individually and collectively

7: What is the meaning/purpose of human history?

Humans exist, therefore we have a past (human history), a present, and a future... all determined by our thoughts and actions, individually and collectively, and determined as well by forces beyond our control.

8: What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with your worldview? In other words, what is your purpose or goal in life?

I am committed to following my own True Will and experiencing wherever my choices and actions take me and whatever comes my way.

 

[Daemon Sophic]

I'm doing a paper for a class about different worldviews, and I'm looking for at least three people to answer some questions about their worldviews. The questions are based on James Sire's book The Universe Next Door with some modifications. Thanks for helping me out!

1: What is prime reality – the really real? What gives context to your life and is the source of the rest of reality? (i.e. matter, God, cosmos etc.)
The universe is matter and energy, including their interactions with one another. Chance, along with unfathomable numbers of interactions throughout deep time resulted in us and everything we have ever known.
The context for my life is to perpetuate and improve upon life. Making the world/universe better for my offspring and theirs, as well as for all life, human or otherwise (except mosquitoes....they can roast in the fiery heart of a super-massive star, and the entire multiverse will sing in joy). This is best done through expansion of human knowledge and understanding.

Remember, it is all bigger (and much more important) than you.....or me......or any individual or subgroup of almost any size.

2: What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us? See #1 above.

3. What is a human being? A bipedal primate with a larger cerebral cortex than the average primate (one cannot properly imitate Yogi Bear while typing.
Perhaps the most significant differences between us and the other primates is the ability to recognize how our actions today may affect things here and far away for years

4: What happens to a person at death? Interactions cease. Consciousness ends. There is no evidence of anything more.

5: Why is it possible to know anything at all? How can we know anything? Interneural connections within our brains. Evolution--> Those who could not remember features of prey, predators, the environment, etc....all died out.
Furthermore we have developed records (pictures, writing, mathematics, photography, etc....). Advances build upon advances. That is the nature of science, and development of technology, and knowledge, and possibly wisdom...... and thus the human condition.
If you are asking more philosophically, then cogito ergo sum, and the rest is just hoping real hard with metaphysical fingers crossed.

6: How do we know what is right and wrong? Where do ethics come from? Our nature as social beings. We have evolved to recognize that we survive better as a group. Get along and play nice with others.....or die.
On a larger scale, a society without rules/laws will inevitably fall into anarchy. Thus, obey the rules.....or die.

7: What is the meaning/purpose of human history? See answer #1 above.

8: What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with your worldview? In other words, what is your purpose or goal in life? See answer #1 above.

Good luck in your studies.


PS - Welcome to the forums!

 

[GoodbyeDave]

1: What is prime reality – the really real?
All that I experience is real. Even if I misinterpret the experience, it remains real. There is no need for something "behind" experience to explain it.

2: What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?
As Quintessence said, things are what they are. What else could they be?

3. What is a human being?
An embodied spirit and an ensouled body.

4: What happens to a person at death?
Body and soul go their natural ways.

5: Why is it possible to know anything at all?
Why should it not be possible? The question strikes me as silly.

6: How do we know what is right and wrong? Where do ethics come from?
Ethics come from the nature of things. A good book is one worth reading. A good cat is one worth owning. A good action is one worth doing, in the context of the agent being a rational, social being.

7: What is the meaning/purpose of human history?
Why should it have a purpose?. That's like asking what was the purpose of my having oxtail soup today rather than tomato.

8: What is your purpose or goal in life?
Again, why should I have a purpose?

 

[whirlingmerc]

1: What is prime reality – the really real? What gives context to your life and is the source of the rest of reality? (i.e. matter, God, cosmos etc.)
God

2: What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?
The word is made by a God that is outside of time and space for His glory and specifically
the world is made 'from through to and FOR ' Jesus

3. What is a human being?
A person made to reflect and reflect upon on the glory of God and to find their
deepest satisfaction in depending on and glorifying God

4: What happens to a person at death?
They will go to enter God's joy or be excluded form God's joy and await judgement

5: Why is it possible to know anything at all? How can we know anything?
Because God designed the world to be a Cosmos and not a Chaos and reveals things as He chooses
various ways

6: How do we know what is right and wrong? Where do ethics come from?
We are made with a conscience as part of the reflection of God but since we are tarnished fallen images are imperfect at it.
Ethics such as 'the law ' of Moses reflect the character of God in various ways and point out our fallibleness and need for redemption.

7: What is the meaning/purpose of human history?
To glorify God and near the apex of God's glory is showing mercy though the death and resurrection and glorification of Jesus

8: What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with your worldview? In other words, what is your purpose or goal in life?
Worshiping God, living God and others.

 

[Shiranui117]

I'm doing a paper for a class about different worldviews, and I'm looking for at least three people to answer some questions about their worldviews. The questions are based on James Sire's book The Universe Next Door with some modifications. Thanks for helping me out!

1: What is prime reality – the really real? What gives context to your life and is the source of the rest of reality? (i.e. matter, God, cosmos etc.)

The world we see around us is definitely real. I think there might be something more than science can see, but I'm not sure what that is. I lean towards everything being alive--animism, in other words. Perhaps the universe itself is alive, and is what we call God. I honestly have no idea what's true beyond our physical universe, however.

2: What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?

Exactly as science says. Incredibly complicated, intricate, fascinating and wonderful.

3. What is a human being?

A conglomeration of molecules and chemicals which fuels a variety of processes, which together comprise what we call "life". We are our own unique form of life, different from many other life forms due to our unique physiology and morphology.

4: What happens to a person at death?

The constituent parts that make up our body cease to function, and that little light that we call "life" goes out. Our base chemical and physical components then become part of the rest of the ecosystem--earth, dirt, air, water, eventually parts are absorbed into plants or animals as food, etc. As far as where our life energy goes, who knows? Maybe it just fizzles out like a fire without any more fuel. Maybe that energy goes somewhere science can't see.

5: Why is it possible to know anything at all? How can we know anything?

Because we have the amazing ability to perceive the world around us and chemically store information within the brain for later recall.

6: How do we know what is right and wrong? Where do ethics come from?

Ultimately, our ethics come from what is most beneficial to us as individuals and as a social unit. Maybe there's a higher power that mandates these ethics, but I have no idea.

7: What is the meaning/purpose of human history?

Whatever purpose we decide to give it, ultimately. But the themes that seem to come up most often are a search for self- and group-identity, an improvement of our conditions so our children have a safer, better and more prosperous world than we did, and the goals of ambitious people.

8: What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with your worldview? In other words, what is your purpose or goal in life?

1: Be the kind of person I will want to leave this world as.
2: Leave a mark on the world, so I know that something I did will endure long after I am gone.
3: I am my deeds, and my deeds live on.
4: I am a one-of-a-kind being of immense complexity, intricacy and wonder that has taken 13 billion years to form, and so is everything and everyone around me. I should treat everyone and everything accordingly.