What is a Worldview?

Conversation 4, Socrates Worldview 3/22

Socrates sat in his usual place in the café, staring serenely ahead while he waited for Adeimantus to order his coffee. As Adeimantus approached, he said:

SOCRATES. Although you may not think so to look at me, Adeimantus, I feel a little ‘challenged’ this morning.

ADEIMANTUS. Socrates, how can that be? Has Petal been giving you a hard time?

S. Not at all, although you are right to observe that Petal is the only person, apart from myself, who could agitate my feelings in this way. No, the time has come for me to state for you, in outline, how I justify my conviction that it is not irrational to adhere to a materialist view of the world, neither is it irrational to believe in a spiritual world, always with the proviso that boundaries apply in both cases.

A. Is it really so daunting?

S. You may be surprised to learn that I have never yet laid the whole scheme before anyone. I fear that your perceptive questioning might pick holes in it. You will already have observed that I prefer to reserve the role of questioner and ‘hole picker’ for myself, and you will appreciate that I am ‘going out on a limb’ here.

A. Your famous ancestor was a noted ‘hole picker’, I believe.

S. True. Nevertheless, you must be strictly honest and forthright in your assessment, for your own benefit as well as for mine, for you will surely learn something from this process.

A. Very well, Socrates, I will be honest and forthright, and I fully expect to learn something.

S. What do you understand by the term ‘worldview’?

A. I take it to mean a scheme of ideas that attempts to encompass all that one knows about the universe without omission of any part and without inherent contradiction. I find it a clumsy and pretentious term.

S. I concur with your definition, Adeimantus, but what do you find pretentious about a worldview?

A. It is not the worldview itself that I feel is pretentious, but the thought that someone would expound a worldview. It seems like ‘showing off’.

S. Do you think that everyone has a worldview?

A. I suppose so, but ….

S. But most people either don’t think about it, or they keep it to themselves. Do you know what was written on the wall at the oracle of Delphi?

A. Yes, ‘Know Thyself’ (Xenophon, 2013, pp. Memorabilia IV, 2 [24]).

S. Correct. And how can you truly know yourself if you cannot explain how you fit into the wider scheme of things? ‘No man is an island,’ you know.

S. As for your concern about ‘showing off’, could it be that you feel no two people can have the same worldview, so to state your own is to point to where you might disagree with another?

A. Now that you ask, I am not sure. It could be that.

S. But surely it is better to lay our potential agreements and disagreements out in the open so we can know each other better, as well as ourselves. Otherwise, how can we be truly comfortable with each other, knowing that major disagreements may be lurking unsaid below our superficial discourse?

A. You have a point.

S. Or is it that you think it impossible to achieve a coherent worldview, and therefore pretentious to try?

A. Maybe.

S. But is not the attempt noble in itself? Will we not learn much about ourselves and others in the process, regardless of whether we succeed?

A. I accept that.

S. And will it matter if our worldviews are not all the same? After all, if they differ, they cannot all be true, don’t you think?

A. No they cannot all be true if they differ.

S. But what if they differ not in logic or reasonableness, but only on points of personal preference. I believe we will find that preference is important.

A. It sounds like you are looking for a way out if elements of your worldview are inconsistent.

S. Not at all. I am anticipating that there will inevitably be gaps in our knowledge in areas which, despite our unavoidable ignorance, impinge on our attitudes and behaviour. It will be in these areas that preference will come into play. The question will then be whether our preference is reasonable and rational, that is, not disallowed by some other aspect of our knowledge.

A. I am perturbed to hear that there may be more than one acceptable worldview.

S. Only the omniscient God possesses the one true worldview. Our ignorance prevents us mortals from excluding all other worldviews that are reasonable within the limits of our imperfect knowledge. I am warning you, Adeimantus, against the person who claims to possess the one true worldview. Such people exist.

A. Very well, I do not accuse you of pretentiousness, nor will I be embarrassed to hear you expound your worldview.

S. Good man! Now, what do we understand the ‘world’ to be, of which we are to form our view?

A. I am sure you will tell me, Socrates.

S. I was amused to read this definition the other day. According to my trusty Little Macquarie Dictionary (The Little Macquarie Dictionary, 1993), the world is ‘The entire system of created things; the universe.’

A. What did you find amusing in that definition?

S. If there are created things, then there must be a creator. That the product of a secular university would depend on such an assumption astounded me. However, the author of that definition has raised an important point. Should we include God in our worldview?

A. That author seems to be excluding God from the universe.

S. Yes, but if an element of our worldview is that God exists, then surely that is an important element and we must include God in our worldview, if not in the world.

A. So our worldview can encompass more than the world?

S. So it seems. A materialist might deny the existence of God, but he cannot deny the existence of the idea of God, so are we to include ideas as well?

A. It seems we must, if only to discuss the nature of their existence.

S. And are ideas created?

A. It is beyond my powers to say, Socrates.

S. Fair enough, Adeimantus. Shall we agree for now that our discussion can refer to anything that exists, or which might or might not exist? Our conclusions about whether a thing exists and whether it belongs to the world can wait until we deal with specific cases.

A. I agree to that.

S. Would you agree that a worldview must be comprehensive, by which I mean that it must enable us to explain or understand phenomena we observe, or to justify our behaviour or attitudes in any situation?

A. Yes, a worldview must be comprehensive. If not, we could find ourselves in a situation where we have no rational basis for action, according to our worldview. We must then either behave irrationally, or stand paralysed, like a robot that grinds to a halt when its code provides no instructions do deal with its current situation.

S. Adeimantus, your coffee cup is empty, and my coffee is cold. We have taken ample time to prepare the ground. Shall we adjourn until tomorrow?

References

The Little Macquarie Dictionary. (1993). Macquarie University, NSW, Australia: The Macquarie Library.

Xenophon. (2013). The Complete Works of Xenophon (Delphi Classics Version 1 ed.). Hastings, East Sussex, United Kingdom: Delphi Publishing Ltd.