Chapter 11 – Pre-Renaissance Worldviews

Every society must work out and articulate a view of the physical universe, a way of seeing the world, a way that then becomes the base on which the society’s value 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 helps them decide how to act. World view, values, and behaviours must form a coherent system under which each individual is empowered to make decisions and take action so the entire society can efficiently operate and survive in its always changing, always demanding environment.

All societies know this in some deep way. Societies up until our time have worked out their world views, values, and morés to the extent they have because 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 morally right is practicable. There is no point in striving for the “impossible”.

So let’s keep moving forward in this task of building a new, universal moral code, but let’s also move with all the prudence we possess. What is at stake is everything.

Therefore, before we begin constructing this new system, we need to get our thinking into the necessary mindset by considering the most salient peaks in the histories of some societies of the past, in order to see how systems of world views, values, and behaviours coordinate and evolve.