Belief to Action

The Importance of Worldview

Photo by Ian Stauffer on Unsplash

I think most people have a woefully inadequate worldview.

This causes all types of problems. One of the problems that exists downstream of a distorted worldview is bad action. For me, “bad action” falls into two categories. It can either be “no action” when action is required or it can be “wrong action.”

How do we get from worldview to action?

Worldview is not hard to define. Its meaning is apparent. However, let’s start with something even more fundamental than worldview: cosmology.

Let’s begin with cosmology and work our way towards worldview.

Cosmology

What is cosmology? By looking at the word, you might simply assume it means “the study of the cosmos” and you would not be wrong. However, the term can be applied more broadly, and, in our case, we’ll be thinking more metaphysically than physically.

A quick glance at dictionary.com gives the following definition:

“the branch of philosophy dealing with the origin and general structure of the universe, with its parts, elements, and laws, and especially with such of its characteristics as space, time, causality, and freedom.”

Religious systems have cosmological understandings. Even if you have never used the term before, you also have a cosmology. Your cosmology may be theistic or atheistic. In either case, you have certain beliefs about things bigger than you and even bigger than the Earth. You may even have certain beliefs about things that transcend time and/or space. The collection of all these beliefs would be your cosmology.

Worldview

That will have an effect on your worldview. Your cosmology provides a framework for how you see the world, your place in it, and your relationships with other people.

*Of course, if your cosmology is flawed, your worldview is then premised upon faulty foundations. But that’s a topic for another day.

It can be difficult — and for our purposes unnecessary — to determine exactly where cosmology ends, and worldview begins. Some interpret worldview so broadly that it can nearly encompass cosmology, but I prefer to draw a distinction.

This view of the world, your worldview, will include what you think about human ecologies. For example, what do you think about the role of governments? Or churches? Or legal systems?

A natural extension would then be your beliefs about geopolitics. What models best serve to represent your thoughts on how nations interact with one another? How do non-state entities such as corporations impact the geopolitical stage? What about terrorist groups or drug cartels? What about multi-billionaire “philanthropists?” What’s the interplay between large religious groups and governments? How do the actions of certain governments indirectly affect other states’ governments or the world economy? Is there anyone more powerful than the leaders of the largest, most powerful countries?

Or do you perhaps have some other model that explains how the world truly runs?

Does your worldview also include an understanding of epistemology?

Epistemology

What exactly is epistemology? A quick reference will tell us that it is:

“a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge.”

For our purposes, we can scope this down a bit and just think about the ways in which we receive information, evaluate that information, and then use that information to refine our worldview.

Simply restated, this means our view of the world we live in will only be as good as the:

1. Information we receive about the world

2. Our ability (or willingness) to process and critically evaluate that information

3. Our ability (or willingness) to challenge previously held tenets of our worldview and refine them

Action

Our cosmology provides the foundational backdrop for our worldview. Our personal epistemological profile determines how readily we adapt our worldview to new information. This worldview influences our actions.

Worldview Warfare

Is that a thing?

Yes.

There is a German term for the concept: Weltanschauungskrieg. As you can see from the linked page for the term, it’s closely related to “psychological warfare.”

It’s not difficult to understand the connection between psychology and worldview. Nor is it difficult to conceive of how psychological attacks might impact the worldview of an intended target or targets.

And by rupturing a worldview, the behavior (actions) of an intended target can be influenced.

So how can a worldview be disrupted or ruptured?

1. Challenge one’s cosmology

2. Distort one’s epistemological capability and capacity

I mentioned above how cosmology greatly influences worldview. If someone were to somehow disrupt your beliefs about God, your relation to Him, your place in the universe, and the nature of the transcendental, then your worldview would be severely affected.

What about attacks on your ability to execute proper epistemology with respect to your worldview? Let’s review what I stated above about how epistemology impacts our worldview. I listed three ways:

1. Information we receive about the world

2. Our ability (or willingness) to process and critically evaluate that information

3. Our ability (or willingness) to challenge previously held tenets of our worldview and refine them

Now think about how hindering those processes would impact one’s ability to improve their worldview or maintain an accurate worldview. If someone were to disrupt those processes, what would happen? Imagine if someone could:

1. Block or distort information we receive about the world

2. Degrade our ability and/or willingness to process and critically evaluate that information

3. Degrade our ability (or willingness) to challenge previously held tenets of our worldview and refine them

If someone were to control the access to information, then they could carry out Step #1 quite easily. Misinformation and disinformation are real phenomena. Imagine what could happen if we only had access to carefully crafted narratives.

If someone were to bombard us nonstop with information, the accurate data would get lost in a sea of meaningless chatter. If someone were to impact our education systems that teach us to think, they could affect our critical reasoning faculties. What if “authority figures” told us exactly what to think and discouraged us from challenging their decrees?

If someone were to promote the nihilist idea that there is no need to modify one’s worldview because it’s meaningless or arbitrary, then what would happen to people’s beliefs? If someone were to promote the idea that all beliefs are equally valid, and can exist entirely independent of reality, then what would that do the concept of truth? And if one’s worldview becomes entirely divorced from truth, the worldview isn’t just invalid. It’s worse. It actively promotes destruction.

What does that mean in terms of action?

This worldview warfare impacts the target’s ability to execute proper discernment as to what to believe, who to trust, etc. This then affects decision making.

This corrupted worldview will inevitably lead to destructive behavior. On an individual level, this can be tragic. On a societal level, it can be cataclysmic. Imagine the cultural implosion that can result from deliberately deployed worldview warfare.

Our beliefs serve as an enormous driver for our actions. Ruptured worldviews lead to destructive actions.

To what degree do you think someone is conducting worldview warfare against humanity?