What is

Worldview?

Copyright © 2004 Orville Boyd Jenkins Orville Boyd Jenkins March 2004
 is Worldview?

 Worldview may be described as The

shared sense of reality of a group of
people
 The basis of culture is Shared Significant
Experiences What
 Common experiences of life lead to a
communal understanding of the world

What is Worldview?
 What is Worldview?

 Common sense understanding that develops

within the community of all who share
those significant life experiences
 As humans we are limited to a finite set of
experiences
 Thus sets of experience vary from family to
family, group to group

What is Worldview?
 What is Worldview?

 The Shared Sense of Reality is a

Worldview – or Cognitive Culture
 Worldview exists only in the head of those
who share it
 It IS reality to them – that community’s
reality
 They shape their common life according to
how they view reality in that worldview

What is Worldview?
 What is Worldview?

 Worldview (Cognitive Culture) involves

– Values, Preferences, Beliefs, Right and Wrong
– The unseen world, death, afterlife
– What higher spirit powers exist, God, gods
– Self-identity - Significant shared experiences
– Expectations, Possibilities

What is Worldview?
 What is Worldview?

 Shared Experiences: Previous Experiences

affect Expectations
 Language is a primary shared significant
experience
 Language is integrally related to Worldview

What is Worldview?
 What is Worldview?

 Language is integrally related to Thought-

formation
– Some languages are better suited for some
thoughts – those thoughts related to the
worldview to which that language is related
 Thus the Hidden Mental World shows
through in the language

What is Worldview?
 What is Worldview?

 The real cognitive aspect of language is in

our use of the language to think
 The Cognitive Culture, woven into the
fabric of the language, is what we call
Worldview
 Worldview in Language: Language and
Thought

What is Worldview?
 What is Worldview?

 How Society is Organized is an expression

of Worldview (Cognitive Culture)
 The Cognitive Culture determines patterns
of relationship, decision-making,
interdependence, obligation, restitution
 Cognitive Culture is the basis for:
– Social Role Development
– Social Roles and Obligations

What is Worldview?
 What is Worldview?

 Social Interaction Patterns are the Social

Culture
 The Cognitive Culture, or World View, is the
basis of the Social Culture
 Language is also part of the Social Culture
 Language is a social medium, and thus a
social skill

What is Worldview?
 What is Worldview?

 Language is a medium of interaction in

social relationships
 Thus Language is critical in both Cognitive
Culture (Worldview) and Social Culture
 Worldview is thus a critical component of
the Ethnic Identity
 Worldview in Language: Identity and
Relationship

What is Worldview?
 What is Worldview?

 The complex factors in “Culture” (Worldview) are

tied up in language
 Thus our concept of Ethnolinguistic peoples.
 Language is a primary characteristic of human
identity and culture.
 Worldview thus exists in the mental concepts dealt
with in the mother tongue
 Deepest concepts and decision-making processes

What is Worldview?
 What is Worldview?

 This Shared Sense of Reality is at the core

of Ethnic Identity
 Access through
– Sharing significant experiences within the
group (culture learning and adaptation)
– Language expressions and formats reveal
worldview concepts

What is Worldview?
 What is Worldview?

 The shared sense of reality of a group of

people
 Unseen, in the heads of the members of that
community

What is Worldview?
 What is Worldview?

 Accessible through
– clues in language, social culture,
– cultural informants,
– Acculturation experiences living with the
people
– formal research from other researchers
(vicarious experience of the culture)

What is Worldview?