Worldview is a way of orienting a person in the world around him. It includes the most general knowledge of man about the world in general and about his place in it. A worldview is a set of ideas that a person needs in order to assert himself, to organize his behavior, activities and communication. Also, without it it is impossible to determine the main direction in your life, to choose the line of predominant behavior.
The most important components that make up the worldview and its structure:
- the subject's idea of the world;
- the value system of the individual;
- the life position of the individual.
The worldview in the understanding accepted at this stage exists as much as humanity itself. However, different historical periods filled it with different contents. It always differed in social groups. The main types of worldview that have developed historically are religious, mythological, scientific and everyday.
The first mythological worldview appeared . Ancient legends, legends about the gods, about their omnipotence, about various heroes in a figurative, metaphorical form expressed a perception of reality, an understanding of the world by a person who was at that level of development. Myths of different nations have many similar points. They are also full of inconsistencies and contradictions, which, however, did not bother the first people at all. Most likely, then this type of consciousness was the only way to spiritual realization of reality. We can say that a mythological worldview is a complex of such ideas about the world that are based on faith in divine powers, on fantasy.
But the further mankind went in its development, the more it lost the old vision of the world (though some of its elements can still be found in modern mass consciousness). Religion began to exert a tremendous influence on thinking. A religious worldview is, first of all, faith in higher forces and in the existence of the lower and higher worlds. It differs from mythological one in that it encourages a person to clarify his differences from the natural world and to realize that he belongs to the human race.
An ordinary worldview is more or less present at the first two levels of perception of the world. It consists of a set of views on reality, on human norms of behavior and is based on the experience of previous generations in many areas of life. The range of everyday worldview is wider than mythological and religious. It reflects the experience, lifestyle and interests characteristic of certain social groups.
At the same time as the ordinary, a scientific worldview is being formed . This is a concept about the structure of the world, about the role of the individual in it. These ideas are based on scientific information. The development of science contributes to the development of this worldview.
All these historically established ideas about the world have both positive and negative sides. For example, religious worldview and mythological perceive reality distorted. But they help to maintain communication between generations, to consolidate and transmit the norms of behavior in society. The scientific worldview is based on logic, on understanding everything rationally. However, even it, rejecting intuitive cognition, far from everything can reflect.
So there is a need to explain the world, applying rational and irrational thinking at the same time. From this need a philosophical worldview arose. It complements everything that remains unsolved in previous types. The philosophical worldview covers the relationship of the individual to the world and considers everything that happens from the point of view of importance for man.