Aerts, etal, Worldviews: From Fragmentation to Integration — [Abstract– 280 words]

The world around us is the home that we share with other humans, as well as with animals and plants. We thus have a deep human need to know it. Global world-views, like a plan of a house, help us find our way around.

The world should not be identified with the earth, nor with the cosmos, nor with the observable universe, but with the totality in which we live and to which we can relate ourselves in a meaningful way.

A world-view is a coherent collection of concepts that allow us to construct a global image of the world, and help us understand our experience in it. We construct a world-view from our inner experience and our practical dealings with things, as well as from the interpretation of history and of scientific knowledge about our world.

The main properties of a world-view are coherence and fidelity to experience. A worldview can only be faithful to real experience if it does not contradict rational knowledge.

Some basic questions that require answers are:
What is the nature of our world? Why is our world the way it is, and not different? Why are we the way we are, and not different? Are there general principles by which we should organize our actions in the world? What is the future of our species?

No matter how important facts may be, we are not satisfied with merely "knowing" them. We also want to "understand," gain "insight" into and explain them. We always seek an answer to the question "why?"

We need to construct a coherent world-view so that we can orient ourselves in a meaningful way in our world. Our “world” is slowly becoming the whole universe.