What is

Worldview?
Copyright 2004 Orville Boyd Jenkins

Orville Boyd Jenkins March 2004

What is Worldview?
Worldview may be described as The

shared sense of reality of a group of

people
The basis of culture is Shared Significant
Experiences
Common experiences of life lead to a
communal understanding of the world

What is Worldview?

What is Worldview?
Common sense understanding that develops

within the community of all who share

those significant life experiences
As humans we are limited to a finite set of
experiences
Thus sets of experience vary from family to
family, group to group

What is Worldview?

What is Worldview?
The Shared Sense of Reality is a

Worldview or Cognitive Culture

Worldview exists only in the head of those
who share it
It IS reality to them that communitys
reality
They shape their common life according to
how they view reality in that worldview
What is Worldview?

What is Worldview?
Worldview (Cognitive Culture) involves

Values, Preferences, Beliefs, Right and Wrong

The unseen world, death, afterlife
What higher spirit powers exist, God, gods
Self-identity - Significant shared experiences
Expectations, Possibilities

What is Worldview?

What is Worldview?
Shared Experiences: Previous Experiences

affect Expectations
Language is a primary shared significant
experience
Language is integrally related to Worldview

What is Worldview?

What is Worldview?
Language is integrally related to Thought-

formation
Some languages are better suited for some
thoughts those thoughts related to the
worldview to which that language is related

Thus the Hidden Mental World shows

through in the language

What is Worldview?

What is Worldview?
The real cognitive aspect of language is in

our use of the language to think

The Cognitive Culture, woven into the
fabric of the language, is what we call
Worldview
Worldview in Language: Language and
Thought

What is Worldview?

What is Worldview?
How Society is Organized is an expression

of Worldview (Cognitive Culture)

The Cognitive Culture determines patterns
of relationship, decision-making,
interdependence, obligation, restitution
Cognitive Culture is the basis for:
Social Role Development
Social Roles and Obligations
What is Worldview?

What is Worldview?
Social Interaction Patterns are the Social

Culture
The Cognitive Culture, or World View, is
the basis of the Social Culture
Language is also part of the Social Culture
Language is a social medium, and thus a
social skill
What is Worldview?

What is Worldview?
Language is a medium of interaction in

social relationships
Thus Language is critical in both Cognitive
Culture (Worldview) and Social Culture
Worldview is thus a critical component of
the Ethnic Identity
Worldview in Language: Identity and
Relationship
What is Worldview?

What is Worldview?
The complex factors in Culture (Worldview) are

tied up in language
Thus our concept of Ethnolinguistic peoples.
Language is a primary characteristic of human
identity and culture.
Worldview thus exists in the mental concepts dealt
with in the mother tongue
Deepest concepts and decision-making processes

What is Worldview?

What is Worldview?
This Shared Sense of Reality is at the core

of Ethnic Identity
Access through
Sharing significant experiences within the
group (culture learning and adaptation)
Language expressions and formats reveal
worldview concepts

What is Worldview?

What is Worldview?
The shared sense of reality of a group of

people
Unseen, in the heads of the members of that
community

What is Worldview?

What is Worldview?
Accessible through
clues in language, social culture,
cultural informants,
Acculturation experiences living with the
people
formal research from other researchers
(vicarious experience of the culture)

What is Worldview?

What is
Worldview?
end
Click for
Worldview Perspectives -- A Short Course
Copyright 2004 Orville Boyd Jenkins

Orville Boyd Jenkins March 2004