Chapter  11                            World Views, Old                          Part A

               

            Every society must work out and articulate a view of the physical universe, a way of seeing the world, a way which then becomes the base on which the society's values system is to be built. This is no minor matter; while philosophers may dally over the questions in a theoretical way, real folk have to deal with life. They have to have some code in place that tells them how to act. Worldview, values, and behaviors must form a coherent thinking and doing system under which each individual is empowered to make decisions and take action, and the whole society can efficiently operate and survive in its always-changing, always-demanding environment.

All societies in some deep way know this. Even though societies up until our time have worked out their worldviews, values, mores, etc. and lived their lives almost entirely in unselfconscious ways, people everywhere have always placed great stock in their society’s model of how the material universe is constructed, how it operates, and where it is going. They know implicitly that their worldview must be used as their guide when they are trying to decide whether an act that feels "right" (i.e. moral) is "right" (i.e. practicable).

            So let's keep moving forward in this task of building a new, universal moral code, but let us also move with all the prudence we possess. What is at stake is everything. Before we begin building a new universal moral system, we need to get our thinking into the necessary mindset by considering at least the most salient peaks in the histories of some of the societies of the past, in order to see how systems made of worldviews, values, and behaviors coordinate and evolve.

               

                                                                            G.W.F. Hegel 

            In this chapter, Philosophy students will notice similarities between some aspects of what I have to say and the philosophy of Hegel, and I admit freely that there are similarities. But I have some major points of disagreement with Hegel which I will explain along the way in this chapter. For those readers who are not Philosophy students, I also should say here that, even when I bring him up, I am going to give only a very quick version of my understanding Hegel. If you find the ideas presented here at all interesting, you really should give Hegel a try. His writing is difficult, but not impossible, and he also has been interpreted by some disciples who write more accessibly.(1.) But in this book, let’s now get back to our analysis of the worldviews, values, morés, and behavior patterns that are discernible in the history of some of the societies of the West. 

                 

                                      artist's conception of Trojans dragging wooden horse into Troy

            For an instance, let's consider the very ancient Greeks, the ones who came long before Socrates’ time. They portrayed the universe as an irrational, dangerous place. For them, the gods who ran the universe were capricious, violent, and cruel, which is a quick way of describing these people's worldview. Under their worldview, human beings could only cringe fearfully under the gods' testy humors. Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Ares, Hades, Athena, Apollo, et al were all lustful, jealous, cruel, and unpredictable. Zeus, especially, had thunderbolts. Poseidon inflicted earthquakes. Apollo, plagues.

            

            But as Greek culture advanced, this worldview evolved. By the Periclean Age, many Greek stories and plays portrayed humans challenging the gods. At the same time, the Greeks evolved their system of values towards a braver, smarter lifestyle. They began to try to explain the world in ways that left room for the possibility of people understanding and manipulating at least some of the events in the world around them. Once their worldview included that possibility, they did begin to create action plans that enabled humans to cause, hasten, or forestall events in the world. They tried out the daring action plans and some worked. More daring plans followed. (Edith Hamilton articulates these ideas well.) (2.)

                                                   

                                                         Aristophanes, Greek comic playwright 

            It is important to see that human individuals and groups will normally not attempt any action that they see as being taboo. Ancient tribes who happened upon an action which seemed contrary to, or outside of, what was appropriate for humans in their worldview only grew upset and fearful. Whether the action got promising results or not, the only thing most of these people wanted to learn in such situations was how to avoid putting themselves in the situation again. They sought to avoid it for fear of bringing the gods' wrath down on them. Once in a long while, a genius might question his society’s worldview and even describe an alternative one, but s/he often paid dearly for such audacity – by being ostracized or put to death.

                         

                                      

                                                           Euripides, Greek tragic playwright 

            However, changes in a society’s worldview and then in the society’s values and morés can also evolve more gradually, helped on by whole bunches of lesser geniuses. By the Golden Age of Athens, writers, artists, and philosophers were attempting all kinds of things that only a few centuries earlier would have been literally unthinkable. Their worldview had evolved to allow for at least some degree of human free will. The works of Euclid, Plato, Euripedes, Archimedes, and Aristotle could only have been produced under a world view in which a person could conceive of actions challenging the orthodox beliefs of the tribe and even the forces of the universe, even though the challenge might succeed only once in a hundred tries. Sadly, also, of course, at the same time, their neighbors, the Spartans, were evolving their society, the perfect military state. The clash called the Peloponnesian War was inevitable and Athens lost. A few years later, the Macedonians out-Spartanned the Spartans, and then in a few generations, of course, the Romans ended the matter by conquering them all.

                       

                                                         artist's conception of Spartan warriors