Nursing Assignment

Question

Write an 1100-word essay on your personal worldview. Briefly discuss the various possible meanings of the term “spirituality,” and your understanding of the concepts of pluralism, scientism, and postmodernism. Primarily, address the following seven basic worldview questions:

What is prime reality?
What is the nature of the world around us?
What is a human being?
What happens to a person at death?
Why is it possible to know anything at all?
How do we know what is right or wrong?
What is the meaning of human history?

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Answer

Humanity and Worldviews

            The twenty-first century has been labeled information, knowledge, and awareness century. Many people now research and create content on a wide range of subjects. The internet has, in turn, made dissemination and access of content very easy. Today, people are studying even the hardest topics, questioning pre-determined facts, and coming up with new theories all centering on a quest to understand origin, humanity, life, the world, and human interaction. There are many worldviews, each with a sizeable following. A worldview is a theory, idea, guidelines, or beliefs about the world, life, and social organization. This further translates to how an individual interprets situations, people, and responds to them. In addition, worldviews influence a person’s principles, codes of ethics, behavior, values, and culture. Most worldviews encompass science, religion, superiority, and governance (Tsvetkov, 2014).

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            Pluralism, scientism and postmodernism are some of the main worldview-related concepts. Others include naturalism, new age consciousness, religion, and spiritism. Pluralism is the idea that people should coexist without dispute despites differences in culture, religion, or race while still maintaining their traditions and identities. Scientism is the belief in the practicability of scientific methods in all aspects of research, existence, and development (Tsvetkov 2014). Postmodernism refers to beliefs and ideas developed after the modernism period in the early twentieth century. Religious ideas revolve around particular deities as opposed to naturalism which suggests that everything is explainable by natural law and reason. Spiritsm focuses on a spiritual superiority and origin while new-age consciousness focuses on the oneness of humanity, deities, and spirits.

Human identity and origin is a basic worldview issue that philosophers the world over have sought to address. Questioning one’s purpose, existence or form is a feeling almost everyone has had at one point of their lives. I understand human identity as a complex yet simple form of existence. My understanding of the human identity espouses a combination of naturalism, religion, and new age consciousness. Naturalism suggests that human beings are purely as a result of biological processes. This view identifies evolution as the origin all species. In addition, naturalism is based on factual evidence and reality and can back the evolution theories with well-accepted evidence. Religion supports the theory of creation by a Supreme Being, making the Supreme Being the origin and end of human life. Theories of postmodernism, explain present human states to be a product of previous and prevailing social settings. All these theories clearly place great value on human beings as the center of life and focal point of all human philosophies. Human history is closely linked to human identity and is a frequent worldview question. Records of human history, most of which seems to be averagely accurate, exist under all philosophies. In fact, different worldviews have emerged owing to the history records and pieces of evidence found. I think the human being originated from creation and subsequent evolution over time. At the same time, I think human consciousness also contributes to human evolution and identity. Following this, I strive to demonstrate religious appreciation of human existence and science as the tool to drive forward human identity and endeavor (Van den Bos, Van Ameijde & Van Gorp, 2006).

What happens to a person at death? The topic of death, the unpredictability and the unknown aspects of death create overwhelming feelings and theories. This question has remained unanswered or vaguely answered. Naturalism associates death to the ultimate end and disintegration of humans. Other worldviews like religion teach of a higher form of life after death. Spiritism and new age consciousness suggest progression to a higher and superior being. Interestingly, most philosophies equate the quality of afterlife to the values demonstrated by a person before death. I think of death as mysterious but not scary phenomenon. I think death signifies progressing to a better form of existence. However, I think that the advent of death following the accomplishment of one’s life purpose should be celebrated.

            How do I know what is right or wrong? Guidelines of right and wrong are commonly derived from the philosophies and history records. Furthermore, proponents of their respective philosophies also play a role in deciding standard right and wrong measures based on their knowledge and understanding. I believe values are primarily an individual’s responsibility. Despite external influences such as culture and religion, I consciously focus on supporting a set of rules to live by. Most philosophies outline a guide detailing right and wrong but also recognizing the human being as an independent entity capable developing his own set of values (Van den Bos, Van Ameijde & Van Gorp, 2006). All these values can still be traced back to the respective worldviews. Naturalism explains values as social necessities that are also evolve as the species evolve. New age consciousness focuses on balance of the oneness, right and wrong. Religion places great importance to values and morals. My view is that I should combine all these philosophies to create my own system that feels effective and fair to both myself and people around me.

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            Questions on reality are also common in philosophical thought. My views in this regard derive from a combination of naturalism, religion, and new age science. I believe that reality is what can be seen or identified. Most importantly, I think reality can be created in the mind and ordered into action. Naturalism views reality as material components that can be seen and which exist. New age consciousness identifies spirits as the only reality everything else is a vessel or instrumental to the spirit. Religion promotes belief in the spirits, gods and human beings as real. Spiritism bases reality on spirits, with materials being regarded as real in association to spirits.

            Why is it possible to know anything? In my view, anything that is known must be proven as such by facts. Therefore, anything that cannot be scientifically proven is unreal. Additional knowledge also stems from the unity of all aspects of my life. This suggests that every person has a unique sense of understanding regarding what they need to know. Based on the religious perspective, supreme beings have created and provided knowledge and enlightenment to human beings (Aikenhead, 2001). I think gaining knowledge is a deliberate effort that requires actively searching for information.

            Finally, questions regarding the surrounding world and its nature are often included in most philosophies. I find the world, by its very nature, to be mysterious and vastly unexplainable. Naturalism explains surroundings as biological processes as it does for human beings. This means that the components that surround us are also evolving (Aikenhead, 2001). A strong co-relation between human beings and their surroundings exists during evolution. The religious outlines the creation narration for all things that exist on earth. Again, human beings are portrayed as superior to the surrounding components. New age consciousness and Spritism show spirit association with the surroundings making the surrounding equally as important. I believe in the creation of all things, after which humanity began influencing their environment. The issue of origin could be explainable from a religious perspective, while further development as well as disintegration of the surroundings can be explained in terms of the role played by human beings.

              Evidently, different worldviews are supported by different philosophies. However, I feel that there are other varying factors which influence people’s outlook on life. These factors cannot be applied to groups because every individual faces factors specific to his or her unique circumstances in life. Upbringing, education, neighborhood socialization, financial position, and culture are a few of the factors that influence one’s worldview. In an era where so much freedom of thought and expression has been encouraged, many people are able to embark on their own personal journeys to seek and research all sorts of theories and philosophies of life. Discussion forums, retreats, and seminars are constantly bringing together diverse minds to argue out different theories. In some cases, efforts are being made to combine two or more philosophies to create a more in-depth understanding of specific worldviews.

            The directionless search for answers on life and humanity is as exciting as it is overwhelming. Despite this situation and the progress made, I still wonder whether this is an eternal unsolvable puzzle. Even worse, it could be that all the old and formulated theories are greatly flawed and inaccurate. Pluralism is an effective idea that should be embraced to create more cohesion amidst the diversity of philosophical thought. In think that by emphasizing integration while still recognizing the multiplicity of culture and identity, this approach is bound to bring about great results in terms of human socialization and development. Most importantly, finding balance is as important as is openness in unlocking those aspects of my personal worldview that are sometimes hard to conceptualize.

References

Aikenhead, G. S. (2001). Students’ ease in crossing cultural borders into school science. Science Education85(2), 180-188.

Tsvetkov, V. Y. (2014). Worldview model as the result of education. World Applied Sciences Journal31(2), 211-215.

Van den Bos, K., Van Ameijde, J., & Van Gorp, H. (2006). On the psychology of religion: The role of personal uncertainty in religious worldview defense. Basic and Applied Social Psychology28(4), 333-341.

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