Naming the Elephant
Worldview as a ConceptHistory and Philosophy of Ideas
GRS601 AAFebruary 9, 2014James Sire, the author of the book Naming the Elephant Worldview as a Concept, is a Christian author and philosopher. This interesting book shares an interesting view of worldview. Sire defines a worldview as: “A worldview is a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously or inconsistently) about the basic makeup of our world” (Sire, 2004). It does not matter who I am, where I come from, or what I believe in. Everyone has their own worldview. Consciously, I probably never even thought about it. Nor have I even realized it, till now, but I have a worldview and it affects how I envision life events as well as how I react to those events.
In his book, Sire recognizes that learning presuppositions is not the only way. There are other ways of knowing. One of those ways is into the heart through a story. The very reality in which we all live, involves both living out our understanding and commitment to that reality. In other words, building a worldview is all about learning. It is also about absorbing and committing to live out the reality that we have built. There are quite a few parallels among worldviews and spiritual formation. Spiritual formation involves the learning, and brings together what we learn to build. It also brings the reality to guide us to live it out in the real world.
James Sire’s concept of worldview is a “set of presuppositions (Sire, 2004)” that are pretty much the same with one another. These beliefs are our first basic endeavor. To me this means that we do not have a realistic reason to grasp onto these beliefs. However, if we did have a rational reason for these beliefs, then the rational reason would be the true basic base obligation. That is unless, it had a rational reason. These presuppositions are the reasons, whether rational or…