Our worldview is the method we use to develop our Weltbild. During every human life an individual Weltbild is forming, and ideally it keeps evolving throughout our entire life. This development is essential for our health and happiness. A good method for this process allows us to build an extensive and realistic Weltbild. Therefore our worldview has a big impact on how we live our life.
Our Weltbild is our personal network of concepts. It is based on experience, and our experience is already personal. Experience requires the ability to perceive and to think. When we use our thinking power to connect a perception with a concept, we call this an Erkenntnis. In this process the shape perceived with our senses is enriched by the concept. On the other hand, we also attach the specific perception to the concept and thus create an individualized concept, a Vorstellung. When we recognize something, we use our Vorstellung to complement the perception. If we have seen an apple before, then we already have an idea, a Vorstellung, of what this apple looks like on the inside. We do not need to take a bite and have a look to know that we will find for example seeds in there. Both the perception and the concept originate in reality, we are receiving them. Our Vorstellung represents this reality in our mind, and extends beyond the moment of perception. With this perspective it becomes understandable why Vorstellung has been translated with representation in some philosophical texts.
With every Erkenntnis we are also creating an individualized concept. Our Weltbild is not only personal due to the selection of concepts it includes. It is also characterized by the shapes of the concepts, which are a result of the perceptions we connect with them. The perceptions are attached to the concepts they belong to, and as a result our Weltbild contains the general concepts in a specialized form. This personal shape of the concepts is defined by our perspective, our field of perception. The individualized concept we also call Vorstellung. Our experience is the sum of our Vorstellung. And our Weltbild is shaped by our experience. We can interpret new information only based on our previous experience.
So what is philosophy of life? How do I become aware of my worldview, my method to create my network of concepts? Our thinking attaches concepts with perceptions and thus creates our Vorstellung. Our Weltbild is made of those individualized concepts. Our goal when evolving our Weltbild should be to unite all our experiences, Vorstellung and concepts in a harmonic network.
What we perceive also depends on how we observe. A pristine and creative mind observes open and unbiased. It does not intend the verification of a theory previously put forward or the consolidation of a Weltbild. It is not about belief in authority or affiliation bought with adoption of given opinions. It is about observing reality free of speculation, theories and expectations. A worldview based on this intuitive method is capable of uniting all observations and achieving an understanding of the world as a whole.
This worldview can conflict with our need for a stable Weltbild that matches those of the people around us. Then, evolving my Weltbild appears as a threatening idea, because it separates me from my surroundings. Our feelings play a key role in the creation of our Weltbild. Our feelings challenge us when we want to change our worldview. And they are supposed to. Our feelings turn us into individuals. Our feelings make us alive. We connect perceptions not only to concepts, but also to ourselves. We create an individual connection, that expresses itself as a feeling. These feelings become also a part of our individualized concepts, our Vorstellung. To evolve, we must step out of our comfort zone. We must learn to think not only with our Vorstellung, but also with the general concepts. This way of thinking is the key to certainty and freedom, and also the key to life.
Remark:
Initially, I used “philosophy of life” instead of “worldview” in this article, because worldview can be used as a translation for both “Weltbild” and “Weltanschauung”. Those two German words are often used as synonyms as well, but I think they should be used for different concepts to be more precise. Worldview is a better translation for Weltanschauung, and then I did not find another good word to translate “Weltbild”, so I don’t. Both Weltbild and worldview (philosophy of life) belong to the same generic concept. However, in this article I differentiate those two words. Here, the Weltbild is more specific, refers to all the experience I made and integrated into my vast network of concepts, beliefs and Vorstellung. Worldview on the other hand is more fundamental here. It is about my belief how reality is generally structured and how it interacts with me. Examples are monism, dualism and pluralism. These views can be subdivided further and ultimately decide how I direct my attention, what “boxes” I have and what filters my perception develops. It is about my belief regarding what is real and the relation of my experienced individuality to the world as a whole. This determines how I look at the world, what I believe to see and ultimately what I can actually recognize and integrate into my Weltbild.