Under the Philosophy of Mind board, there’s an ongoing thread: Does a baby already have a preconceptual worldview? I sort of jumped into the middle of it because, well, because I’m Napa with babies and children being at the center of long stretches of my life, and the backdrop for my own “mindscape” and it’s an endlessly fascinating topics.
I made a few comments, received some good feedback and found myself musing on it this afternoon. To be clear I’m no scholar and speak from personal experience and observations so had much to chew on.
An early observation was that worldview’s definition is a slippery thing. But as the formal concept was becoming more understandable it seemed reasonable to claim that newborns, indeed don’t have a “worldview”.
But that misses the more important thing that a newborn does possess.
That is, a very keen self-view, that is awareness of a biological self that possesses a suite of evolutionary imperative and tools to drive to thrive, along with a metaphorical flow-chart of how to get there.
First, know what to do with those boobies, Next figure out what’s tingling at the ends of these arms? And so on. ;-}
Seems to me worldview is where interaction comes into it. That is, the accumulation of the world of experiences through as they process through each child’s unique perceptual/emotional filters.
It is interacting with the world that creates an ever evolving worldview, one experience brick upon another.
Also, all this seems like another line of evidence pointing at the central importance of “interaction” for animal (and human) thinking & consciousness processes to unfold.
Thanks.
What’s this sound like to you?
