Abstract
Worldviews are not only about whether God exists or whether the world has a purpose. They can contain a lot more, or they can differ in excluding the existence of God and/or a purpose for the world. In this article we define worldviews as answering a variety of worldview questions, which we list. Once this is recognized, it becomes clear that scientific worldviews are also a species of worldviews that should not be dismissed categorically. We then distinguish between the project of constructing a scientific worldview and asking whether science itself has any worldview content. We argue that science, even when it is characterized quite minimally, does have worldview content. This has some important implications for science education, which we draw.
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Notes
See the final essay entitled ‘Weltanschauung’, Lecture 35 of Freud (1973), in which Freud attempts to address the conflict between a scientific worldview that would include his own psychoanalytic theories, and the various facets of a religious worldview.
For this list, see Gauch (this issue); compare Cobern (2000, p. 237). Cobern’s list of presuppositions of science, however, differs from Gauch’s in some ways. More importantly, Cobern argues that there is no such list that characterizes adequately all of science.
For an account of the rejection of reason and an appeal to faith in the later St. Augustine, see Freeman 2002, pp. 292–294. Freeman also discusses the way in which St Paul dismisses reason when it comes into conflict with faith and his criticisms of “the philosophers” (ibid., Chapter 9).
We take it that what some writers mean by ‘methodological naturalism’ is nothing but this mode of scientific explanation. See Gauch (this issue) and Gauld (2005, p. 304).
See Alexander (1956), especially xvi–xviii, 13–14 and 17–19.
The overwhelming importance of criticizability for science has been emphasized most by Karl Popper. See, for instance, his (1975).
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We would like to thank Colin Gauld for helpful comments.
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Irzik, G., Nola, R. Worldviews and their relation to science. Sci & Educ 18, 729–745 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-007-9087-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-007-9087-5