Each person is but the sum of their experiences, or so we are told. Every experience which you have, every interaction which you make leaves you changed (unless we’ve been desensitized of it). Deep inside we have conscious awareness, unconscious unawareness, and everything in between that forms the construct of the person we are, the fabric of our being.
An individual construct, however complex, can be deduced to series of areas that combine in special ways:
Ontological component: The study of being and what constitutes objective and subjective existence, and what it means to exist.
Theological component: A particular system or school of religious or spiritual beliefs and teachings.
Cosmological component: The study of the structure, origin, and evolution of the universe.
Axiological component: The study of values and value judgments.
Epistemological component: The study of what is meant by "knowledge". What does it mean to "know" something as opposed to merely having an opinion?
Ethical component: The principles of right and wrong that are accepted by an individual or a social group.
Take 10 different people and ask them, for instance, “What constitutes your objective and subjective existence and what does it mean to exist,” or…if you didn’t want to be so long-winded, one could simply ask “what is the meaning of life for you?” You would likely get 10 different answers. Because things like the theological, cosmological, and ethical components have a tendency to be more discrete in nature (“What are your theological beliefs?” “I’m Lutheran” or “what is your belief about the structure, origin, and evolution of the universe?” “The standard model of cosmology, thank you very much!”). Ethics tend to vary between social groups, societies, and civilizations: What is an accepted belief in Western Philosophy, for example, isn’t necessarily something that one would find in Eastern Philosophy: The paradigms between cultures vary in context and, therefore, meaning.
How these various components interact comprise the objective versus subjective within the individual. Objective things are those that can be proven by fact, whereas subjective matters are often interpreted by the individual to fit into their individual world. The sum of accumulated learning goes through the “filters” of the individual—the ontology, theology, cosmology, axiology, epistemology, and ethics filters. Each person’s perception of the world is unique in that how they pass new information through these filters to change something.
Worldviews, supported by personal values, are a framework for interacting with others: More on that in the next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment