Why Worldview Literacy Is A Crucial Meta-Cognitive Skill
“The most practical and important thing about a man is still his view of the universe… the question is not whether the theory of the cosmos affects matters, but whether, in the long run, anything else affects them.”
— G. K. Chesterton, Heretics, in The Complete Works of G. K. Chesterton, ed. David Dooley, vol. 1, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986), 41.
“But there are some people, nevertheless — and I am one of them
— who think that the most practical and important thing about a
man is still his view of the universe. We think that for a landlady
considering a lodger, it is important to know his income, but still
more important to know his philosophy. We think that for a general
about to fight an enemy, it is important to know the enemy’s
numbers, but still more important to know the enemy’s philosophy.
We think the question is not whether the theory of the cosmos
affects matters, but whether, in the long run, anything else affects
them.”
— G. K. Chesterton, Heretics, in The Complete Works of G. K.
Chesterton, ed. Davi
Worldview is a concept ‘whose time has come,’ and its increasing appearance in the contemporary climate change and global sustainability debates can be understood as both response to, and reflection of, the challenges of our time and the solutions they demand.” Annick Hedlund-de Witt (2013, p. 3)
Robert Redfield's World
These differences in how people relate to nature and the supernatural led Robert Redfield to conclude that there are two principal kinds of world-views. He referred to them as "mythological" and "civilized." Today, they are more often referred to as "indigenous" and "metropolitan" or “dominant.”
From Restoring the Kinship Worldview
We go further than Koltko-Rivera to assert that the worldview that considers Nature as intelligent and living and the worldview that perceives Nature otherwise are the only two essential worldviews. As we discuss below, it is difficult to find a third category. This may be illustrated by the mystical experience of Edgar Mitchell, one of the Apollo 14 astronauts and the sixth man to walk on the moon. He founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences to explore the relationship between worldview and the suffering that civilization has caused on the earth. Looking back at planet Earth from outer space made him realize that the “great frontier wasn’t the exploration of outer space, but a deep and systematic inquiry into the nature of our inner awareness.”7 After witnessing the research of his institute, he would later write that “only a handful of visionaries have recognized that Indigenous wisdom can aid the transition to a sustainable world.”
Read the introduction to Restoring the Kinship Worldview here.