The Encarta Dictionary (2004) defines worldview as: “a comprehensive interpretation or image of the universe and humanity.” Worldview (or model of reality) refers to the network of ideas, beliefs, social and cultural embedded-ness, and taken-for-granted assumptions through which an individual interprets and interacts with the world, other people, and himself or herself. In fact, everything in one’s world is seen through the lens of one’s worldview. This lens constitutes an important aspect of one’s being, that is, one’s way of being with the world, other people, and oneself. For an obvious example of the constraining and shaping by one’s worldview on one’s view of the world, others, and one’s self, consider the following: While most of us take self-determination as the rightful natural order of things, not so many years ago the prevailing worldview was one of our being naturally other-determined. Given the prevailing worldview in that era, it seemed natural that the ruler (the emperor, king, chief, or warlord) would determine for us.
Another example is that at one time, for most human beings what it meant to be a human being justified seeing some humans as less human than others, which for many justified slavery as something natural in the realm of being human.
A present day (and therefore more difficult to perceive) example of a constraining worldview is most people’s “cause/effect” worldview. Most of us believe that whatever we observe has been caused by something. This aspect of our worldview makes unintelligible for many of us the non-cause/effect phenomena observed in quantum mechanics.
An example of this is the instantaneous invariant correlation of the states of a certain two photons that collided and are later at a distance from one another. If measured when at that distance from one another, the state of one of these photons turns up as “1”, the state of the other will always be “0”. However, if the state of the one turns up “0”, the state of the other will always turn up “1”. And, it has been proven that this correlation is not a product of the collision – that is, this correlation is not predicted by the initial state.
Given our non-physicist’s worldview (model of reality), we would like to say that when measured the state of the one causes the effect of the state of the other. However,this cannot be true because when measured the two photons are at a distance from one another and the correlation is instantaneous. Because this correlation is instantaneous at a distance, it cannot be one of cause and effect. This would violate the limit of the speed of light as the absolute maximum rate of transfer of information from one location to another, and therefore the correlation is in this sense instantaneous. To indicate the noncause/effect correlation, quantum physicists name this correlation “entanglement”.
Staying in the realm of quantum mechanics for a further example of how one’s worldview (model of reality) acts as a lens through which everything in one’s world is viewed: Even the great Einstein was constrained by his worldview (model of reality), See Salant, et al (2008), “Testing the speed of ‘spooky action at a distance’”. “God does not play dice with the universe”. He criticized the reality of entanglement as "spukhafte Fernwirkung" or "spooky action at a distance." Einstein believed that entanglement would prove to be merely some error in the theory. He once wrote: "I find the idea quite intolerable that an electron exposed to radiation should choose of its own free will, not only its moment to jump off, but also its direction. In that case, I would rather be a cobbler, or even an employee in a gaming house, than a physicist.” We are lucky that Einstein did not need to give up physics for cobbling. He was saved by the fact that it was only after he died that experiments confirmed the noncause/effect phenomenon of entanglement – demonstrating that even for the greatest of us, one’s worldview (model of reality) constrains and shapes the way we view the world.
That non-cause/effect phenomena (entanglement in this case) are counter-intuitive for us (mind-boggling) points to the constraint our worldview of cause/effect imposes on us non-physicists. Unfortunately, being able to “see” our own worldview is extremely difficult. One’s worldview is like air to the bird or water to the fish; it is generally invisible to us.
The difficulties and reluctance that human beings confront in shifting their worldview is illustrated by Stapp’s observation that “More than three quarters of a century have passed since the overturning of the classical laws, yet the notion of mechanical determinism still dominates the general intellectual milieu.” Preface to Stapp, Henry P. 2007. Mindful Universe: Quantum Mechanics and the Participating Observer: Springer-Verlag. About the world, other people, and ourselves – is an important aspect of our being, which constrains and shapes our way of being with the world, other people, and ourselves.
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