Epistemology & Worldview EXAM 1 Flashcards

Worldview

A shared view of reality by a group of people

Three contributors to Worldview

religion, language, and culture

Five carriers of worldview

Peoplehood, language, narrative, way of life, homeland

Two foundational assumptions of worldview

secular and religious

Sensation and perception

Biology (senses) and Cognition (meaning)

Mazeway formation

carriers of worldview & experience and internalization

"I do not believe in boogey men or God. If I can't see it or smell it or feel it, it is not real."

assumption

"This is obvious. A person who kills another is simply manifesting a mental health problem."

assumption

"I feel something cold here. I am getting a sweater."

sensation / perceptions

"I love green eggs and ham. You should try it."

sensation / perceptions

Secular Behavioral Science

the study of human behavior and society from a naturalist perspective, emphasizing the use of the scientific method and observation without reference to religious or supernatural explanations.

Christian Behavioral Science

answers the same questions from psychology, sociology, anthropology -> but from a decidedly christian perspective

Naturalism

What is real?

Naturalism is the hypothesis that the world is a "closed system" in that nothing that is not a part of the natural world affects it.

It can be investigated through scientific method

The first behavioralism assumption

Supernaturalism

What is real?

the question of the proper relationship between psychology and christianity must begin at the level of worldview.

Spiritual reality interacts with and influences material and cognitive realities.

Beings beyond the laws of science and nature control and influence the universe, often involving God, Angels, or miracles.

Empiricism

Discovering how the real world works, the methodology

We can best know material reality through controlled observation and experience -> Scientific method

All knowledge comes from sensory experiences, rather than from innate ideas and pure reason.

Perception

Psychological processes, including sensation, that allows us to attach wiring to sensor input

Impact what we perceive in the real world

Shaped by memory (perceptional patterns)

Assumption

A fundamental belief or premise that is accepted as true without proof, forming the basis for theories, research, and predictions about behaviors.

Sensation

The brain" sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch

Biological process of receiving & transitioning info from the world via sensory receptors in the eye, tongue, ears, shin, nose to the brain

Worldview components

contributors carriers, and assumptions

worldview dynamics

sensation and perception, enculturation

Five rites of passage

birth, adulthood, conversion, marriage, funeral

rites of intensification

passage, lords supper, 4th of July, mourning

Sympathetic magic

Primitive or magical rituals using objects or actions resembling or symbolically associated with the event or person over which influence is sought

ex: rain dance, voodoo

Contagious magic

Belief that objects or individuals that were once in contact retain a magical connection, allowing them to influence each other even after a separation. (part of sympathetic magic)

ex: contact through pater seeding, doll with actual hair

ordinances

ritual symbolizes, acts out truth (communion)

sacraments

ritual effects, grace is imparted (blood of Jesus is his real blood)

Language

language is universally human

critical to thought

intersects with emotion

formats memory

Culture the learned context: SLAVIC

Shared unevenly

Learned in context

Adaptive to environment

Variable to circumstances

Integrated system

Changing constantly

Material Culture

actual physical items that are adapted or made as a result of human activity

Cognitive culture

the cultural meaning that we give to reality as we understand it

Behavioral culture

the rituals and actions that are the prescribed and proscribed by the content of shared culture

Three types of relatives - Peoplehood

Consanguinal (blood)

Affinal (legal)

Fictive (role)

Common history

"our story"

narrative of the origin of your group, people, nation, or religion

common language

Shared categories of meaning

language of ancestors is used to identify you with the past

common way of life

shared technology, concepts and experiences

everyday roles and rules that people understand and follow almost as second nature

ex: thanksgiving or Christmas meal, cultural meal (tamales or lasagna)

common environment

local geography, shared land

Assumptions answer these questions:

What IS REALITY?

How do we KNOW the reality that is there?

How do we UNDERSTAND that reality?

What CUASES what in reality?

What in reality MATTERS MOST?

Reductionism

The best explanation for any cause-effect relationship is the simplistic one

Determinism

There is a knowable cause for every effect; choice is an illusion

Relativism

There are no absolutes; knowledge and truth exist in relation to culture, society, or individual perception

Methodological Naturalism

Natural causes can be investigated through scientific method, whereas supernatural causes cannot

Mysteries of the Universe

1. Origins: Science is unable to discover the origins of the universe and humanity

2. Purpose: Science is unable to determine the meaning of our existence

3. Destiny: Science cannot demonstrate the ultimate destiny of Human Knowledge

Scientific Theory

A theology, an education guess based off information that is limited.

Reductionism: How do we UNDERSTAND reality?

we choose the simplistic explanation of a phenomenon, the one that requires the fewest leaps of logic.

Determinism: What causes WHAT in reality?

We have the ability to make choices but we will make them within the confines of our nature.

The view that all events including human action are ultimately by causes external to the will, and therefore, absolving humans of responsibility.

Relativism: What MATTERS in reality?

The view that knowledge and "truth" exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context.

Knowledge and truth are not absolute; in fact there are no absolutes

Biblical Epistemology

the Bible is the revealed truth from God and interprets all other sources of information about reality

Biblical Holism

All three realms of reality are considered when attempting to understand the universe and human behavior

Biblical Responsibility

Human beings are morally accountable

Biblical absolutism

These are absolutes against which we are held accountable