[UNGS2030] Chapter 1 - World Views Meaning, Characteristics and Kinds

UNGS 2030

[Type the company name] Wan Asiah Wan Hasbullah

[WORLDVIEWS: MEANING, CHARACTERISTICS AND KINDS] Islamic Worldview | Chapter 1

[WORLDVIEWS: MEANING, CHARACTERISTICS AND KINDS] UNGS 2030

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CONTENTS

1.1 Meaning & characteristics of the Islamic & other worldviews

1.1.1 Impact of Worldviews

1.1.2 Fundamental Questions addressed by worldview

1.1.3 Worldview as Basic

1.2 Kinds of the worldview

1.2.1 Islamic

1.2.2 Western

1.3 Classification of Worldview

1.3.1 The scientific worldview

1.3.2 The philosophical worldview

1.3.3 The religious worldview

1.4 Selective contemporary ideologies

1.4.1 Secularism

1.4.2 Post modernism

1.4.3 Materialism


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1.1 THE MEANING OF WORLDVIEW

‘Worldview’ is an English translation of the German term “Weltanschauung”.

It is rendered in Arabic as اإلسالم للوجود رؤية

Worldview Defined:

A set of attitudes on a wide range of fundamental matters.

A comprehensive set of propositions about various aspects of the world.

A unified and comprehensive view of the world around us and man’s place

within it.

Basic assumptions and images that provide a more or less coherent, though not

necessarily accurate, way of thinking about the world.

A worldview is a profile of the way the people within a specified culture live,

act, think, work and relate. It is a “map” or culture’s social, religious, economic

and political views and relationships

1.1.1 Impact of Worldviews

Helps to know peoples and cultures comprehensively

Helps us to interact with nature, individuals, peoples, nations, cultures and

civilizations

Helps us to correct our own values, perspectives, attitudes and behaviours

Helps us to formulate theories of politics, sociology, culture, etc.

1.1.2 Fundamental Questions addressed by worldview

How far out does the universe go? Did it have a beginning and will it have an end?

How was it that we humans came about here on earth?

Does life have a purpose? If it does, what can give meaning to my life?

Does my daily conduct matter in the long run?


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What happens to me at my death?

What is good and what is bad? How can I know the good and the bad?

How should I be treating others?

How can I know?

1.1.3 Worldview as Basic / Abstract

Worldview formulated by

prophets (revelation), great

philosophers and scientists

Simile

Philosophy of IIUM

Worldview interpreted and

applied by intellectuals,

scholars, scientists,

physicians, etc.

Interpreted and applied by

lecturers & staffs

Worldview received applied

by ordinary people

Learned and applied by

students

1.2 KINDS OF WORLDVIEW

Worldview influences all aspects of life

Some worldviews such as Islam cover all aspects of life including the personal, social,

economic, political, cultural, civilization besides dealing with spiritual, moral, and

Aqidah issues.

But there are other worldviews which focus only on spiritual, material, social, or

economic aspects of human life.


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Any worldview should be able to answer the ultimate questions not necessary correct

answers but at least consistent

1.2.1 The Definition of Islamic worldview

“A metaphysical survey of the visible as well as the invisible worlds including the

perspective of life as a whole”. Al-Attas in “Islam and the Challenge of Modernity, p.

27.

Islamic worldview encompasses the issues of universe, creator, prophethood, society,

man, and hereafter.

It is not a worldview that is formed merely by amalgamation or historical concoction

of various cultural values. Rather, it is a well-established framework derived from the

revelation and interpreted by Muslim scholars throughout Islamic history

This frame of reference provides us with correct and consistent answers to the

ultimate questions pertinent to the issues of God, unseen, man, universe, and life. It

also guides man as a vicegerent of Allah to the correct belief system, shari‘ah, and

ethical values.

The worldview of Islam encompasses both al-dunia ( الدنيا ) and al-akhirah ( اآلخرة ) in

which the dunia aspect must be inextricably linked to the akhirah aspect, and in which

the akhirah aspect has ultimate and final significance.

The Main Elements of Islamic worldview

• The Conception: of God; of Revelation (i.e. the Qur’an); of God’s Creation; of

man and the psychology of human soul; of knowledge; of religion; of

freedom; of values and virtues; And of happiness. (Al-Attas, . Ibid, 29)

The Objectives of Islamic worldview

• To provide the Muslims with the true knowledge and explanation about the

world seen and unseen as they are explained in the Qura'n.

• To teach people the way and method how to achieve the main values of Islam

in human life.


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• To establish the fundamental ethical precepts, such as justice, freedom, trust,

and dignity of human life and existence.

1.2.2 Western Perception of Worldview

Most of the western perceptions of worldview rely more on our existing reality,

experience and life. They don’t give much consideration to the issues related to the

unseen world and hereafter.

Most of the western perceptions of worldview consider it as assumption, but this is

not true from an Islamic perspective because in Islam, we consider it as a system and

truth derived from revelation.

Most of the western perceptions of worldview consider it as a product of culture and

experience. According to them, religion itself is produced by people and culture.

In the Muslim perspective, Islam or Islamic worldview is not a cultural product of

Arab, Indian, or Malay. It is rather derived from the revealed word of God without

corruption and change. This revelation is then understood by Muslims through their

different cultural backgrounds and experiences.

Worldview of Islam comprises both al-dunya and al-Akhirah aspects, in which the

dunya-aspect must be related profoundly to the Akhirah-aspect, and in which the

Akhirah-aspect has ultimate and final significance.

On the basis of this epistemological and anthological premise, Al-Attas defines the

Islamic worldview as follows:

Worldview is: the vision of reality and truth that appears before our mind’s eye

revealing what existence is all about; for it is the world of existence in its totality that

Islam is projecting. The Islamic view of reality and truth, which is a: metaphysical

survey of the visible and invisible worlds including the perspective of life as a whole,

is not a worldview that is formed merely by the gathering together of various cultural

objects, values and phenomena into artificial coherence

Nor is it one that is formed gradually through a historical process of philosophical

speculation and scientific discovery, which must of necessity be left vague and open-


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ended for future change and alteration in line with paradigms that change in

correspondence with changing circumstances.

It is not a worldview that undergoes a dialectical process of transformation repeated

through the ages, from thesis to anti-thesis then synthesis

1.3 CLASSIFICATION OF WORLDVIEW

Worldview

Philosophical Religious Scientific


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1.3.1 Religious worldview

There is a universal spirit, god, deity or divine entity

This divinity has established an eternal moral order that, in part at least, can be known

to human beings

People have the duty to follow eternal moral dictates

This human conduct has long-term (beyond individual death) significance.

Characteristics of Religious Worldview

• The Religious worldview considers both the world of seen and unseen. It is

comprehensive in its perception of the world. It does not undermine any

dimension of reality and existence

• Its basis is on the scripture or ‘sacred’, revealed or non-revealed text.

• It is more stable than the scientific and philosophical worldview, in terms of

having certain and unchangeable principles of belief system and ethical

system.

• The Religious worldview in general imparts to our life the sense of

responsibility, meaning, and purpose. This means that life and the existence

has a meaning and a purpose. Therefore, it makes our life as a responsibility

towards God, and towards other people.

1.3.2 Philosophical worldview

It derives from philosophy and it means to deal with fundamental questions of life.

It uses logical reasoning, deduction, induction , mathematic and speculation.

The Philosophical worldview is more wider in its scope than the scientific worldview.

It deals with issues of philosophical and metaphysical world.

It attempts to give a meaning to creation and life. It does not have the exactness of

sciences but it instills in ourselves a sense and meaning.


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Its results and findings are not precise and measurable like scientific worldview’s but

they open new ways for human beings to think beyond their physical world.

Main Characteristic

• It is more comprehensive than the scientific worldview, because it deals with

physical and metaphysical realties.

• If scientific worldview deals only with certain part of the universe, the

Philosophical worldview deals with the entire existence and the universe.

1.3.3 Scientific Worldview

It is based on the premises and findings of science,

Science is the source of all explanations pertaining to the issues of creation, life, men,

and other issues

Based on 4 important foundations: Materialism, logical positivism, empiricism,

skepticism

The main steps of scientific method

Identify the problem or question through observation

Propose hypotheses and assumptions that should explain the problem posed

Collect data and information

or replace it until you get the correct one.

If your hypotheses are correct. You accept and provide a full explanation of the

problem. Repeat the test in similar situations and if the result is the same, then you

may proceed to construct a scientific theory. The latter provides a consistent and

rational explanation of the phenomenon or the problem. If this scientific theory stands

and resists many tests, then it becomes scientific law.

The fact usually remains intact for long period of time but they can be questioned

with development of human understanding and the new data and tool of research. And

once a fact is questioned the process of research takes the same course as mentioned

above.

Positive and Negative Aspects of Scientific Method


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Because it is based on experiment and empirical research, its findings are

more exact and authentic and they can be verified through using statistic,

mathematics, and measurement.

However, these exact results only apply to a certain part of our existence, the

physical world. The scientific worldview cannot give us exact and authentic

knowledge or interpretation of the metaphysical world.

Therefore, the scientific worldview is not capable of providing comprehensive

and consistent explanation of the entire world.

The Scientific worldview is very important, because it allows human reason to

exercise its ability and to produce knowledge in many fields.

The Scientific worldview also allows man to discover many laws and pattern

of God in the universe.

However, the scientific worldview passes its limitation when it gives human

senses and reason a role beyond their capacities. In scientific worldview, Aql

and senses become the only source of knowledge that can be accepted; any

other source including revelation cannot be accepted.

Scientific worldview allowed the human mind to produce industries, sciences

and technologies. It opened many ways for human mind to exploit nature and

discover its laws.

However, the scientific worldview failed to protect man and nature from

destruction. One of the main reasons of this attitude of scientific worldview is

because it undermines the moral, ethical, and religious factors.

According to the scientific worldview, the only sources of knowledge are

reason, experiment, nature, senses, and human experience. It does not consider

revealed knowledge as a source of knowledge that can provide guidance to

people and answer their questions. In this sense, the scientific worldview was

unable to discover the sense and role of morality in human life.

The place of man in the mechanistic-materialistic view is clearly portrayed by

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) in the 1903:

“The philosophy of nature is one thing, the philosophy of value is quite

another….Undoubtedly we are part of nature, which has produced our

desires, our hopes and fears, in accordance with laws which the physicist is

beginning to discover. In this sense we are part of nature, we are subordinated


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to nature, the outcome of natural laws, and their victims in the long run… But

in the philosophy of values the situation is reversed… We are ourselves the

ultimate and irrefutable arbiters of values and in the world of value Nature is

only a part…In this realm we are the kings, and we debase our kingship if we

bow down to Nature. It is for us to determine the good life, not for nature – not

even for Nature personified as God.”

Therefore, the scientific worldview failed to give meaning to life and existence. It

only gives power of controlling nature, but it lacks the sense of meaning to our life.

Therefore, the scientific worldview should adopt new approaches which involve

values, moralities, and ethics in the process of scientific research.

1.4 SELECTIVE CONTEMPORARY IDEOLOGIES

1.4.1 Materialism

Materialism is a theory that physical matter is the only or fundamental reality and that

all beings and processes and phenomena can be explained as manifestations or results

of matter.

Materialism excludes the existence of entities that are radically different from or

superior to the matter of our ordinary experience.

In materialistic worldview, only matter matters. Everything that is not physical and

material is not accepted.

It rejects, therefore, the existence of God or gods on whom the universe would depend

for its existence or mode of operation; it denies the existence of angels or spirit; it

questions the notion of a soul, if taken to be immaterial entity separable, in principle,

from the human body.

Its two main targets are therefore theism and dualistic views of human nature.

It negates the existence of all that doesn’t fall within the framework of change and

transformation and is not perceivable by sense organs


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All knowledge of the world and of society must be based on sense experience and

ultimately on science.

Like positivism, materialism lays stress on science as the only legitimate source of

knowledge about the causalities of the world

1.4.2 Postmodernism

Belief that individuals are merely constructs of social forces, that there is no

transcendent truth that can be known; a rejection of any one worldview or explanation

of reality as well as a rejection of the reality of objective truth.

A view which, for example, stresses the priority of the social to the individual; which

rejects the universalizing tendencies of philosophy; which prizes irony over

knowledge; and which gives the irrational equal footing with the rational in our

decision procedures all fall under the postmodern umbrella.

A cultural and intellectual trend of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

characterized by emphasis on the ideas of the decenteredness of meaning, the value

and autonomy of the local and the particular, the infinite possibilities of the human

existence, and the coexistence.

Postmodernism claims to address the sense of despair and fragmentation of

modernism through its efforts at reconfiguring the broken pieces of the modern world

into a multiplicity of new social, political, and cultural arrangements

Seven principles and characteristics of postmodernism

1. No absolute truth, truth is relative, contingency is everything. The only

absolute truth is that there are no absolute truths (Feyerabend)

2. No reality: there is no ultimate reality behind things: we see largely what want

to see, what our position in time and place allows us to see…

3. Only Simulacrum: Imagination and speculation

4. Meaningless and valueless.

5. Total Doubt


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6. Multiplicities of truth, ethnicities, cultures …

7. Equal representation for class gender sexual orientation

1.4.3 Secularism

The English word secular derives from the Latin word saeculum, meaning “this

present age”, “this world” of change as opposed to the eternal “religious world”.

It is defined as “the liberation of man from religious and metaphysical tutelage, the

turning of his attention away from other worlds and towards this one.”

Components of secularization

Disenchantment of nature

Freeing of nature from its religious overtones. Nature is not a divine

entity.

This provides an absolute condition for the development of natural

science. However highly developed a culture’s powers of observation,

however refined its equipment for measuring, no real scientific

breakthrough is possible until man can face the natural world unafraid.

Desacralization of politics

No one rules by divine right.

Significant political and social change is almost impossible in societies

in which the ruling regime is directly legitimated by religious symbols.

Deconsecration (relativization) of values

The disappearance of securely grounded values

There are no longer the direct expression of the divine will.

They have ceased to be values and have become valuations

Documents

[UNGS2030] Chapter 1 - World Views Meaning, Characteristics and Kinds