What Are Worldviews Anyway?
Worldviews are basically the mental frameworks we use to make sense of reality. They’re not something we’re born with—they’re passed down through culture, shaped by our communities, and constantly evolving through social interaction (Smith, 2020).
They include:
- Ontological assumptions – What we think is real
- Epistemological beliefs – How we think we can know things
- Axiological commitments – What we value and consider ethical
At the core of all this are presuppositions—those assumptions we never even think to question that shape how we see literally everything (Habermas, 2018).
The Hidden Power of Presuppositions
What Makes Presuppositions So Important?
Presuppositions are the foundation of your entire worldview, but here’s the catch: they work completely under the radar (Smith, 2020). Unlike beliefs you can actually explain and defend, presuppositions operate before you even start thinking consciously about something (Taylor, 2016).
They determine:
- What you consider “real”
- Which sources of knowledge you trust
- What questions seem worth asking
- What answers make sense to you
Example: If you assume reality is purely material vs. spiritual, that shapes how you interpret everything from consciousness to morality to human purpose (Habermas, 2018).
Why They’re Invisible
The real power of presuppositions is that you can’t see them—you look through them, not at them (Giddens, 2019). This creates a self-reinforcing loop:
- Your presuppositions shape what evidence you notice
- They determine how you interpret that evidence
- Your interpretations confirm your original presuppositions
Real-world example: Someone who assumes spiritual experiences are supernatural will interpret mystical states as proof of divine presence. Someone who assumes naturalism will see the exact same experience as just brain chemistry (Patterson, 2021). Both feel 100% certain they’re right.
How Culture Passes Down Presuppositions
It Starts Before You Can Even Think Critically
Rather than figuring things out on your own, you absorb presuppositions unconsciously through (Giddens, 2019):
- Language patterns
- Rituals and traditions
- Stories and narratives
- Everyday social practices
Kids inherit these frameworks long before they can think critically about them, just by being part of their culture (Smith, 2020).
The Role of Language and Social Life
Language itself carries hidden assumptions:
- The categories your language uses
- Common metaphors
- Even grammatical structures
All of these embed assumptions about how reality works (Taylor, 2016).
The “lifeworld” concept: This is the culturally-specific background of everyday life that shapes how groups perceive and interact with reality (Habermas, 2018). It’s a massive network of inherited assumptions that nobody questions because everyone around you shares them.
Why Worldviews Are So Stable
Presuppositions stick around for generations because:
- You pick them up in early childhood before you can question them
- Your culture constantly reinforces them
- They become deeply embedded in your thinking and emotions (Patterson, 2021)
You don’t experience them as “cultural artifacts”—they feel like obvious truths about reality itself. This is why people with different worldviews often seem incomprehensible to each other. You’re literally perceiving different realities, and each one seems obviously correct from the inside (Smith, 2020).
Different Types of Worldviews
Religious Worldviews
Built on presuppositions like:
- Supernatural reality exists
- Revelation is a valid source of knowledge
- Existence has ultimate meaning within a cosmic story (Smith, 2020)
These presuppositions shape how believers interpret everything—suffering becomes a test of faith, coincidences become divine signs, moral intuitions become evidence of cosmic law.
Secular perspective: Religious worldviews are cultural frameworks addressing universal human concerns (meaning, purpose, mortality, ethics) through culturally specific stories and practices.
Scientific/Secular Worldviews
Built on different presuppositions:
- Reality is fundamentally natural, not supernatural
- Empirical observation gives us reliable knowledge
- Rational inquiry can uncover truth (Habermas, 2018)
These assumptions feel obvious to people raised in scientific cultures, but they’re actually culturally specific—not neutral starting points.
Cultural Worldviews: Individualistic vs. Collectivistic
Individualistic cultures presuppose:
- Personal autonomy comes first
- Individual rights are paramount
Collectivistic cultures presuppose:
- Community harmony comes first
- Relational obligations are paramount (Giddens, 2019)
The clash: What individualistic cultures see as healthy self-assertion, collectivistic cultures might see as destructive selfishness. What collectivistic cultures view as appropriate conformity, individualistic cultures might see as oppressive groupthink.
How Worldviews Develop and Change
Early Development
The process:
- Early socialization establishes foundational presuppositions (usually before age of critical thinking)
- Educational systems reinforce dominant cultural assumptions
- Religious institutions and media make these assumptions seem natural and inevitable (Patterson, 2021)
Why Change Is So Hard
Your brain naturally interprets new information through existing presuppositions rather than questioning them (Piaget, 1952, as cited in Giddens, 2019).
Example: If you presuppose your religious tradition has ultimate truth, you’ll interpret historical criticism of sacred texts as either mistaken scholarship or tests of faith—not as reasons to question the presupposition itself (Smith, 2020).
When Change Actually Happens
Presuppositions typically shift only when:
- You experience significant cultural disruption (migration, cross-cultural contact)
- You’re exposed to alternative frameworks
- Major life events force you to confront unexamined assumptions (trauma, education, transformative experiences) (Habermas, 2018)
Important caveat: Even when presuppositions shift, you rarely achieve complete independence. You typically just adopt alternative presuppositional systems available in your broader culture (Giddens, 2019).
Why Rational Arguments Often Fail
Because presuppositions determine what counts as valid evidence and reasoning, arguments challenging fundamental presuppositions appear illogical from within the existing framework (Taylor, 2016).
This creates the “talking past each other” phenomenon—each side presents compelling evidence from their framework, but it carries no weight for people operating from different foundational assumptions (Patterson, 2021).
A Secular Understanding of Spirituality
Spirituality Without the Supernatural
From a presuppositional perspective, spirituality doesn’t require supernatural entities. Instead, it’s a culturally shaped dimension of human experience concerned with (Taylor, 2016):
- Meaning and purpose
- Transcendence and connection
- Ethical living
Spiritual practices (meditation, ritual, contemplation, communal worship) are culturally specific tools for addressing universal human needs:
- Managing existential anxiety
- Fostering social cohesion
- Cultivating ethical behavior
- Creating experiences of awe and transcendence
Why Spiritual Experiences Feel So Real
You inherit presuppositions about spiritual reality from your culture, and these shape how you interpret altered states and mystical experiences (Smith, 2020).
Same experience, different interpretations:
- Christian presuppositions: Meditation = communion with God
- Buddhist presuppositions: Meditation = insight into the nature of mind
- Secular presuppositions: Meditation = beneficial neurological regulation
The actual experience is consistent—inherited presuppositions determine its interpretation and meaning.
Different Cultural Approaches
Various spiritual frameworks reflect different presuppositional foundations:
| Tradition | Core Presuppositions |
|---|---|
| Buddhist | Suffering arises from attachment; liberation comes through insight |
| Abrahamic | Personal deity reveals truth and demands obedience |
| Secular Humanist | Meaning must be created by humans, not discovered in cosmic purpose |
Understanding Religious Diversity
Rather than viewing different spiritual traditions as competing truth claims about supernatural reality, we can see them as culturally evolved systems built on different presuppositional foundations that serve similar functions through different symbolic languages (Giddens, 2019).
Benefits of this perspective:
- Allows respectful engagement with diverse traditions
- Maintains a secular, naturalistic worldview
- Explains why spiritual experiences feel deeply personal despite being culturally shaped
Modern Spiritual Trends
The “Spiritual But Not Religious” Movement
This reflects a shift in presuppositions—away from institutional authority toward individual experience and personal authenticity (Patterson, 2021). It’s not abandoning presuppositions, just exchanging one framework (religious authority) for another (individual autonomy).
Cross-Cultural Spiritual Practices
Example: Yoga and mindfulness meditation in Western secular contexts
Western practitioners often adopt Buddhist meditation techniques while rejecting Buddhist presuppositions about rebirth and karma. Instead, they interpret these practices through secular presuppositions about mental health and neuroscience (Smith, 2020).
This “presuppositional translation” allows practices to migrate between worldviews while serving different functions in each.
Worldview Hybridity
In our globalized world, people increasingly blend elements from diverse traditions, creating novel presuppositional frameworks (Giddens, 2019).
Reality check: Even people who consciously reject their cultural heritage typically adopt alternative frameworks available in their broader society—achieving a completely presupposition-free perspective is basically impossible.
Critical Issues and Power Dynamics
Who Gets to Define “Truth”?
Power dynamics shape which presuppositional frameworks become culturally dominant, with serious implications for marginalized communities whose inherited presuppositions may be devalued or pathologized (Patterson, 2021).
Colonial Legacies
Colonial histories often involved:
- Suppressing Indigenous presuppositional frameworks
- Imposing dominant cultural assumptions as “universal truth” (Smith, 2020)
Modern example: The presupposition that scientific naturalism represents objective reality (rather than a culturally specific framework) can marginalize alternative ways of knowing and being.
Spiritual Commodification
Contemporary spiritual marketplaces may commodify cultural practices while stripping them of their presuppositional contexts, reducing meaningful frameworks to consumer products (Patterson, 2021).
Finding Balance
A critical approach must:
- ✓ Attend to cultural power, authenticity, and respect
- ✓ Recognize that all worldviews rest on inherited presuppositions
- ✓ Avoid both relativism (all frameworks are equally valid) and ethnocentrism (my framework is superior)
- ✓ Acknowledge that some frameworks may better serve human flourishing in particular contexts (Taylor, 2016)
Avoiding Oversimplification
Important cautions:
- Don’t essentialize worldviews—they’re fluid and multifaceted (Habermas, 2018)
- People within the same culture may inherit different presuppositions
- Presuppositions can be examined and revised through critical reflection
- Complete escape from presuppositional frameworks is impossible, but awareness helps
Wrapping It Up
Understanding worldviews as cultural constructs built on inherited presuppositions gives us a powerful secular framework for examining spirituality and human meaning-making.
Key Takeaways
The reality:
- Most of your worldview consists of unexamined assumptions absorbed from culture
- Presuppositions shape perception, interpretation, and reasoning itself
- They create the lens through which all experience is filtered
Spirituality reimagined:
- A culturally shaped dimension of human experience
- Addresses universal concerns through culturally particular practices
- Different traditions rest on different presuppositional foundations
- No supernatural beliefs required
Why this matters:
- Explains why your worldview feels so obviously true
- Shows why communication across presuppositional divides is so difficult
- Allows appreciation of spiritual frameworks’ psychological, social, and existential functions
- Maintains naturalistic commitments
Looking Forward
As globalization and digital technologies transform cultural transmission, we need more research on how these forces reshape presuppositional frameworks and spiritual practices (Patterson, 2021).
The Path to Understanding
Recognizing the presuppositional nature of worldviews—including your own—fosters:
- Intellectual humility
- Intercultural understanding
- More sophisticated engagement with diverse ways humans create meaning
The bottom line: Complete escape from inherited presuppositions may be impossible, but awareness allows for:
- More critical examination of assumptions
- More empathetic engagement with alternative frameworks
- More conscious choice about which presuppositions to maintain, modify, or replace
This reflexive awareness isn’t about transcending culture—it’s about understanding how culture shapes human consciousness and experience.
References
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford University Press.
Giddens, A. (2019). Sociology (8th ed.). Polity Press.
Habermas, J. (2018). The theory of communicative action: Lifeworld and system (Vol. 2). Polity Press.
Patterson, M. (2021). Cultural studies and worldview formation in digital contexts. Journal of Contemporary Social Theory, 15(3), 234-256.
Piaget, J. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children. International Universities Press.
Smith, J. (2020). Worldviews: An introduction to the history and philosophy of science (3rd ed.). Broadview Press.
Taylor, C. (2016). The language animal: The full shape of the human linguistic capacity. Harvard University Press.
Note: There are two versions of this article. The above version is written in an easy to understand manner and is based on the following original academic style version that I have included in case you want to dig deeper into this subject matter.
Worldviews as Cultural Constructs
Worldviews represent culturally embedded frameworks through which individuals and communities interpret reality, shape their understanding of existence, and guide their actions. Rather than universal or innate structures, worldviews are fundamentally products of cultural transmission—dynamic systems of belief that evolve through socialization, collective experience, and cultural interaction (Smith, 2020). They encompass ontological assumptions about the nature of being, epistemological beliefs about the acquisition and validity of knowledge, and axiological commitments to values and ethics (Taylor, 2016). Central to understanding how worldviews function are presuppositions—the unexamined, taken-for-granted assumptions that operate beneath conscious awareness and shape how individuals perceive and interpret all subsequent experience (Habermas, 2018). Understanding worldviews as cultural phenomena built upon inherited presuppositions provides a valuable secular lens for examining spirituality without requiring supernatural or religious commitments.
The Role of Presuppositions in Worldview Formation
Presuppositions form the foundational layer of worldviews, functioning as the implicit assumptions through which all experience is filtered and interpreted (Smith, 2020).
Unlike explicit beliefs that individuals can articulate and defend, presuppositions operate pre-reflectively, shaping perception before conscious reasoning begins (Taylor, 2016).
These fundamental assumptions determine what counts as real, what sources of knowledge are trustworthy, what questions are worth asking, and what answers are plausible. For example, the presupposition that reality is fundamentally material versus spiritual profoundly shapes how one interprets experiences ranging from consciousness to morality to the nature of human purpose (Habermas, 2018).
The power of presuppositions lies in their invisibility. Because they form the lens through which individuals view the world, presuppositions themselves remain largely unexamined—people look through them rather than at them (Giddens, 2019). This creates a circular reinforcement: presuppositions shape what evidence is noticed and how it is interpreted, which in turn confirms the original presuppositions. An individual presupposing that spiritual experiences reflect supernatural reality will interpret mystical states as evidence of divine presence, while someone presupposing naturalism will interpret identical experiences as neurological phenomena (Patterson, 2021). Both interpretations feel self-evidently true because they align with underlying presuppositions that remain unquestioned.
Cultural Transmission of Presuppositions
The cultural foundations of worldviews are deeply embedded in social and anthropological discourse, with presuppositions serving as the primary mechanism of cultural transmission. Rather than emerging from individual reasoning alone, presuppositions are absorbed unconsciously through language, ritual, narrative, and shared practices within specific cultural contexts (Giddens, 2019). Children inherit presuppositional frameworks long before they develop capacity for critical reflection, internalizing their culture’s assumptions about reality, knowledge, and value through everyday interaction (Smith, 2020). Cultural worldviews determine not only what communities believe but how they construct meaning, validate knowledge, and establish moral frameworks—all built upon shared presuppositional foundations.
Constructivist theories emphasize that presuppositions are socially constructed through discourse and interaction, with socialization processes—from family structures to educational institutions—playing the central role in their transmission (Giddens, 2019). Language itself carries presuppositional content; the categories, metaphors, and grammatical structures of a language embed assumptions about how reality is organized (Taylor, 2016). Phenomenological perspectives further reveal that presuppositions are shaped by the collective “lifeworld” (Lebenswelt), the culturally specific background of everyday existence that informs how groups perceive and interact with reality (Habermas, 2018). This lifeworld operates as a vast network of inherited presuppositions that individuals rarely question because everyone around them shares the same foundational assumptions.
The inheritance of presuppositions explains the remarkable stability of worldviews across generations within cultural groups. Because presuppositions are acquired pre-reflectively in early childhood and continuously reinforced through cultural immersion, they become deeply embedded in cognitive and emotional structures (Patterson, 2021).
Individuals experience their inherited presuppositions not as cultural artifacts but as self-evident truths about reality itself.
This explains why worldview differences often feel incomprehensible or irrational—people operating from different presuppositional frameworks literally perceive different realities, with each framework appearing obviously correct from within its own perspective (Smith, 2020).
Manifestations of Presuppositional Worldviews
Worldviews manifest in various forms that reflect cultural diversity in presuppositional frameworks rather than individual variation. Religious worldviews, grounded in sacred texts and spiritual traditions, rest on presuppositions about the existence of supernatural reality, the validity of revelation as a source of knowledge, and the ultimate meaningfulness of existence within a cosmic narrative (Smith, 2020). These presuppositions shape how adherents interpret all experience—suffering becomes a test of faith, coincidences become divine providence, and moral intuitions become evidence of transcendent law.
However, from a secular perspective, religious worldviews can be understood as cultural frameworks built on particular presuppositional foundations that address universal human concerns—meaning, purpose, mortality, and ethics—through culturally particular narratives and practices. Secular or scientific worldviews similarly rest on presuppositions: that reality is fundamentally natural rather than supernatural, that empirical observation provides reliable knowledge, and that rational inquiry can uncover truth (Habermas, 2018). These presuppositions, rooted in Enlightenment ideals and Western intellectual history, feel self-evident to those raised within scientific cultures but represent culturally specific assumptions rather than neutral starting points.
Cultural worldviews vary significantly between individualistic societies, which presuppose the primacy of personal autonomy and individual rights, and collectivistic cultures, which presuppose the primacy of community harmony and relational obligation (Giddens, 2019). These presuppositional differences manifest in divergent approaches to ethics, identity, and social organization. What individualistic cultures interpret as healthy self-assertion, collectivistic cultures may perceive as destructive selfishness; what collectivistic cultures view as appropriate social conformity, individualistic cultures may see as oppressive groupthink. These differences demonstrate that what individuals experience as personal beliefs are often expressions of deeper presuppositional patterns inherited from their cultural context.
Development and Transformation of Presuppositional Worldviews
The development of worldviews is primarily a process of cultural transmission and adaptation of presuppositional frameworks. Early socialization within families and communities establishes foundational presuppositions that reflect cultural norms and values, typically before children develop capacity for critical examination (Giddens, 2019). Educational systems, religious institutions, and media reinforce dominant cultural presuppositions, shaping how individuals understand themselves and their place in the world while making these assumptions appear natural and inevitable (Patterson, 2021).
However, cognitive processes such as pattern recognition and assimilation ensure that new information is typically interpreted through existing presuppositional frameworks rather than challenging them (Piaget, 1952, as cited in Giddens, 2019). This creates remarkable resistance to worldview change—contradictory evidence is often reinterpreted to fit existing presuppositions rather than prompting reconsideration of the presuppositions themselves. For example, an individual presupposing that their religious tradition possesses ultimate truth will interpret historical criticism of sacred texts as either mistaken scholarship or as tests of faith, rather than questioning the presupposition of textual authority (Smith, 2020).
Presuppositional change, when it occurs, typically requires significant disruption to one’s social and cultural context. Migration, cross-cultural contact, and exposure to alternative presuppositional frameworks can create cognitive dissonance—the psychological discomfort arising from conflicting beliefs—that prompts reevaluation and potential transformation of underlying presuppositions (Festinger, 1957, as cited in Patterson, 2021). Significant life events, including trauma, education, or transformative experiences, may force individuals to confront previously unexamined assumptions (Habermas, 2018). However, even when presuppositions shift, individuals rarely achieve complete independence from inherited frameworks; instead, they typically adopt alternative presuppositional systems available within their broader cultural context (Giddens, 2019).
The difficulty of presuppositional change explains why rational argument alone rarely succeeds in shifting worldviews.
Because presuppositions determine what counts as valid evidence and reasoning, arguments that challenge fundamental presuppositions appear illogical or irrelevant from within the existing framework (Taylor, 2016).
This creates the phenomenon of “talking past each other” in worldview conflicts—each side presents what seems like compelling evidence from within their presuppositional framework, but this evidence carries no weight for those operating from different foundational assumptions (Patterson, 2021).
Presuppositions and Secular Understanding of Spirituality
Understanding worldviews as cultural constructs built on inherited presuppositions offers a powerful secular framework for examining spirituality. From this perspective, spirituality can be understood not as engagement with supernatural entities but as a culturally shaped dimension of human experience concerned with meaning, transcendence, connection, and purpose—with different spiritual traditions resting on different presuppositional foundations (Taylor, 2016). Spiritual practices—meditation, ritual, contemplation, communal worship—represent culturally specific technologies for addressing universal human needs: managing existential anxiety, fostering social cohesion, cultivating ethical behavior, and creating experiences of awe and transcendence.
The presuppositional framework helps explain why spiritual experiences feel profoundly real and meaningful regardless of their metaphysical status. Individuals inherit presuppositions about the nature of spiritual reality from their cultural context, and these presuppositions shape how they interpret altered states of consciousness, mystical experiences, and moments of transcendence (Smith, 2020). Someone raised with presuppositions about divine presence will genuinely experience meditation as communion with God; someone with Buddhist presuppositions will experience it as insight into the nature of mind; someone with secular presuppositions will experience it as beneficial neurological regulation. The phenomenological reality of the experience remains consistent, but inherited presuppositions determine its interpretation and meaning.
Different cultures have developed diverse spiritual frameworks, from Buddhist mindfulness practices to Indigenous animistic traditions to secular humanistic approaches, each reflecting particular presuppositional foundations and cultural values (Smith, 2020). Buddhist traditions presuppose that suffering arises from attachment and that liberation comes through insight; Abrahamic traditions presuppose a personal deity who reveals truth and demands obedience; secular humanism presupposes that meaning must be created by humans rather than discovered in cosmic purpose. By examining spirituality through the lens of cultural worldviews and their presuppositional foundations, we can appreciate its significance in human life without requiring belief in supernatural claims, recognizing instead how cultures create meaningful frameworks for addressing fundamental human concerns.
This cultural perspective has important implications for understanding religious and spiritual diversity. Rather than viewing different spiritual traditions as competing truth claims about supernatural reality, we can understand them as culturally evolved systems built on different presuppositional foundations that serve similar psychological and social functions through different symbolic languages and practices (Giddens, 2019). This approach allows for respectful engagement with diverse spiritual traditions while maintaining a secular, naturalistic worldview. It also explains why spiritual experiences feel deeply personal and authentic despite being culturally shaped—individuals genuinely experience meaning and transcendence through presuppositional frameworks their culture has provided, even though these frameworks are inherited rather than discovered.
Contemporary Spiritual Trends and Presuppositional Shifts
Worldviews as cultural constructs also illuminate contemporary spiritual trends as shifts in presuppositional frameworks. The rise of “spiritual but not religious” identities in Western societies reflects cultural shifts in presuppositions—away from institutional authority and revealed truth toward individual experience and personal authenticity (Patterson, 2021). This represents not an abandonment of presuppositions but an exchange of one presuppositional framework (religious authority) for another (individual autonomy).
The popularity of practices like yoga and mindfulness meditation in secular contexts demonstrates how spiritual technologies can be adapted across cultural boundaries when separated from their original presuppositional frameworks (Smith, 2020). Western practitioners often adopt Buddhist meditation techniques while rejecting Buddhist presuppositions about rebirth and karma, instead interpreting these practices through secular presuppositions about mental health and neurological well-being. This presuppositional translation allows practices to migrate between worldviews while serving different functions within each framework.
The increasing worldview hybridity in globalized societies shows how individuals creatively combine elements from diverse cultural traditions, creating novel presuppositional frameworks that blend inherited and adopted assumptions (Giddens, 2019). However, this process reveals the difficulty of escaping inherited presuppositions entirely—even those who consciously reject their cultural heritage typically adopt alternative presuppositional frameworks available within their broader society rather than achieving presupposition-free perspective. These phenomena illustrate that spirituality, understood secularly, represents an ongoing cultural process of meaning-making built on inherited and adapted presuppositional foundations rather than access to transcendent truth.
Critical Considerations and Power Dynamics
This presuppositional perspective also raises important critical considerations. Power dynamics shape which presuppositional frameworks achieve cultural dominance, with implications for marginalized communities whose inherited presuppositions may be devalued or pathologized (Patterson, 2021). Colonial histories have often involved the suppression of Indigenous presuppositional frameworks and the imposition of dominant cultural assumptions presented as universal truth (Smith, 2020). The presupposition that scientific naturalism represents objective reality rather than a culturally specific framework can marginalize alternative ways of knowing and being.
Contemporary spiritual marketplaces may commodify cultural practices while stripping them of their presuppositional contexts, reducing meaningful spiritual frameworks to consumer products (Patterson, 2021). A critical cultural approach to worldviews must therefore attend to issues of cultural power, authenticity, and respect while recognizing that all worldviews—including secular scientific ones—rest on inherited presuppositions rather than presupposition-free access to reality. This requires avoiding both relativism (all presuppositional frameworks are equally valid) and ethnocentrism (one’s own inherited presuppositions are superior), while acknowledging that some frameworks may better serve human flourishing in particular contexts (Taylor, 2016).
Critics also caution against essentializing worldviews, arguing that rigid categorizations may oversimplify the fluid and multifaceted nature of presuppositional frameworks (Habermas, 2018). Individuals within the same culture may inherit different presuppositions based on subculture, family, and personal experience. Moreover, presuppositions can be examined and revised through critical reflection, even if complete escape from presuppositional frameworks remains impossible. Recognizing the presuppositional nature of one’s own worldview represents a crucial step toward intellectual humility and intercultural understanding.
Conclusion
In conclusion, understanding worldviews as fundamentally cultural constructs built on inherited presuppositions provides a valuable secular framework for examining spirituality and human meaning-making.
This perspective recognizes that the vast majority of any individual’s worldview consists of unexamined assumptions absorbed from cultural context rather than conclusions reached through independent reasoning.
Presuppositions shape perception, interpretation, and reasoning itself, creating the lens through which all experience is filtered. Spirituality, from this view, represents a culturally shaped dimension of human experience that addresses universal concerns through culturally particular practices and narratives, with different traditions resting on different presuppositional foundations.
Rather than requiring supernatural beliefs, this approach allows us to appreciate the psychological, social, and existential functions that spiritual frameworks serve while maintaining naturalistic commitments. It explains both the profound sense of truth that individuals experience within their inherited worldviews and the difficulty of communication across presuppositional divides. As globalization and digital technologies continue to transform cultural transmission, future research should explore how these forces reshape both presuppositional frameworks and spiritual practices (Patterson, 2021).
Ultimately, recognizing the presuppositional nature of worldviews—including our own—fosters intellectual humility, promotes intercultural understanding, and enables more sophisticated engagement with the diverse ways humans create meaning in an increasingly interconnected world. While complete escape from inherited presuppositions may be impossible, awareness of their role allows for more critical examination of assumptions, more empathetic engagement with alternative frameworks, and more conscious choice about which presuppositions to maintain, modify, or replace. This reflexive awareness represents not the transcendence of culture but a deeper understanding of how culture shapes human consciousness and experience.
References
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford University Press.
Giddens, A. (2019). Sociology (8th ed.). Polity Press.
Habermas, J. (2018). The theory of communicative action: Lifeworld and system (Vol. 2). Polity Press.
Patterson, M. (2021). Cultural studies and worldview formation in digital contexts. Journal of Contemporary Social Theory, 15(3), 234-256.
Piaget, J. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children. International Universities Press.
Smith, J. (2020). Worldviews: An introduction to the history and philosophy of science (3rd ed.). Broadview Press.
Taylor, C. (2016). The language animal: The full shape of the human linguistic capacity. Harvard University Press.
Note: This article was written using AI with little or no verification on my part. Please independently verify the information before you use or rely on it. Follow this link for more information on how I use AI tools on this site.