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Question: Philosophy Homework Help!? Part III!.!?
This one, I really need help with!.

Discuss the scientific and religious world view (weltanschauung) by doing the following:

1!.Explain the term "weltanschauung" and give an example to illustrate what you say!.
2!.Explain the scientific and religious world views and the important differences between them!.
3!.Discuss the extent to which they are compatible and why!.

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Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
1!. A comprehensive world view (or worldview) A worldview describes a consistent (to a varying degree) and integral sense of existence and provides a framework for generating, sustaining, and applying knowledge!. The theory, or rather hypothesis, was well received in the late 1940s, but declined in prominence after a decade!. In the 1990s, new research gave further support for the linguistic relativity theory, in the works of Stephen Levinson and his team at the Max Planck institute for Psycholinguistics at Nijmegen, The Netherlands!. The theory has also gained attention through the work of Lera Boroditsky at Stanford University!.

2!.The term denotes a comprehensive set of opinions, seen as an organic unity, about the world as the medium and exercise of human existence!. Weltanschauung serves as a framework for generating various dimensions of human perception and experience like knowledge, politics, economics, religion, culture, science, and ethics!. For example, worldview of causality as uni-directional, cyclic, or spiral generates a framework of the world that reflects these systems of causality!. A uni-directional view of causality is present in some monotheistic views of the world with a beginning and an end and a single great force with a single end (e!.g!., Christianity and Islam), while a cyclic worldview of causality is present in religious tradition which is cyclic and seasonal and wherein events and experiences recur in systematic patterns (e!.g!., Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, and Hinduism)!.

These worldviews of causality not only underlie religious traditions but also other aspects of thought like the purpose of history, political and economic theories, and systems like democracy, authoritarianism, anarchism, capitalism, socialism, and communism!.

The worldview of linear and non-linear causality generates various related/conflicting disciplines and approaches in scientific thinking!. The Weltanschauung of the temporal contiguity of act and event leads to underlying diversifications like determinism vs!. free will!. A worldview of Freewill leads to disciplines that are governed by simple laws that remain constant and are static and empirical in scientific method, while a worldview of determinism generates disciplines that are governed with generative systems and rationalistic in scientific method!.

Some forms of Philosophical naturalism and materialism reject the validity of entities inaccessible to natural science!. They view the scientific method as the most reliable model for building and understanding of the world!. The Christian thinker James W!. Sire defines a worldview as "a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic makeup of our world!." and suggests that "we should all think in terms of worldviews, that is, with a consciousness not only of our own way of thought but also that of other people, so that we can first understand and then genuinely communicate with others in our pluralistic society!." The Rev!. Professor Keith Ward bases his discussion of the rationality of religious belief in Is Religion Dangerous!? on a consideration of religious and non-religious worldviews!.A worldview can be considered as comprising a number of basic beliefs which are philosophically equivalent to the axioms of the worldview considered as a logical theory!. These basic beliefs cannot, by definition, be proven (in the logical sense) within the worldview precisely because they are axioms, and are typically argued from rather than argued for!. However their coherence can be explored philosophically and logically, and if two different worldviews have sufficient common beliefs it may be possible to have a constructive dialogue between them!. On the other hand, if different worldviews are held to be basically incommensurate and irreconcilable, then the situation is one of cultural relativism and would therefore incur the standard criticisms from philosophical realists!. Additionally, religious believers might not wish to see their beliefs relativized into something that is only "true for them"!. Subjective logic is a belief reasoning formalism where beliefs explicitly are subjectively held by individuals but where a consensus between different worldviews can be achieved!.

A third alternative is that the Worldview approach is only a methodological relativism, that it is a suspension judgment about the truth of various belief systems, but not a declaration that there is no global truth!. For instance, the religious philosopher Ninian Smart begins his Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs with "Exploring Religions and Analysing Worldviews" and argues for "the neutral, dispassionate study of different religious and secular systems - a process I call worldview analysis!."Www@QuestionHome@Com

Go Blue!? Are you a Wolverines fan!? If so, I didn't mean to be so insulting!.Www@QuestionHome@Com