World View Philosophy

World View Philosophy

I took this exercise to rate myself on the six criteria listed below . I have to admit that I consider myself quite neutral and feel I am a flexible individual at times . This could be because of two reasons either I was not able to decide which attribute I use more often or I shift my preferences depending on the situation , I hope it 's the latter Flexibility in my decision making and having an open and rational way of thinking will help me decide and live better , or at

least I hope so

Let me start my discussion about my preferences by beginning with the first category - Free Will /Determinism : Do we consciously direct our own actions , or do other forces govern them ? I rate myself a `C ' here . I believe there are things we can control and there are things that we cannot control . It is the 9 /11 week and I cannot help but say that the people whose lives changed because of that event will be inclined towards choosing determinism . If I answered this question without thinking about 9 /11 I might have gone more towards Free Will , but as it turns out , I have an event in mind that tells me there are many things in life that we cannot control . I believe in Free Will and I like to have control in life and over the things I want to do , on a small scale we can control almost everything , but other forces usually determine the life changers

The next category is Nature /Nurture : Are we influenced more by heredity or by our environment . I have rated myself C again . I feel that my family and my genes have contributed hugely to whom I am . The environment that I was brought up in also influences me . My friends and the people I met during the course of my life have influenced the way I think . I feel that there is a basic set of thoughts , ideas , interests skills that we get when we are born , and our bringing up and our environment adds to our thoughts and opinions . There are certain people in life who change the way we think and they are usually parents friends , and teachers . I believe that there are three ways to learn new things - by meeting new people , by reading and by traveling . I honestly do not know of any other way to learn and that is why I believe that we get a certain structure or DNA and importantly our skills but we add to this by meeting people , reading and traveling

Coming to the third category - Past /Present : Is our personality fixed by early events in our lives , or can it affected by experiences in adulthood ? Yet again , I have rated myself C . Now I feel defensive , but the fact is I truly feel torn once again . What happened in my childhood certainly affects me in how I react some reasons I know , some I do not However , at times when I am lost for how I reacted in a certain way I look back at my childhood and I try to relate things . Our adulthood changes our outlook , or rather our experiences change the way we react and this is why I say that we are influenced both by the events early in our life and by events that take place in our adulthood

The fourth category is Uniqueness /Universality : Is the personality of each human being unique , or are there broad personality patterns that fit large numbers of persons ? Here I have rated myself at B . I feel people are unique . There are patterns and there are so many tests and so many theories that try to put us in box A vs . box B but I believe that we humans are unique in nature and less of the types that can be boxed There are words to describe behaviors , attitudes , reactions , but they are a part of our vocabulary . A person cannot be one word . He is different in different situations and that is why I feel that people are unique . If my reaction is 1 in situation A and 2 in situation B , then I agree that there will be people who will have the same reactions for these 2 situations however , if the list was 10 situations long , then I contend that there will be very few people who will belong to one group We are all different in different situations and we are different because of differing opinions , bringing up and my favorite - ways of learning and what we were exposed to since our childhood . If we are to consider the second and the third category , we will see the reasons why people are different , or rather unique

The fourth category is Equilibrium /Growth : Are we motivated simply to maintain a physiological balance or state of equilibrium , or does the urge to grow and develop shape our behavior ? I believe we all want to grow and develop ourselves . I have rated myself D here . There are areas in our life that motivate us and there are others that we just go about doing . Some people are motivated about their careers and we can see them work a hundred hours a week , while there are others who prefer a 9-5 job and like to work a 40-hour week . No , I am not saying that those who work 40 hours and do not want to stretch for any reason what so ever are happy in status quo , what I am saying is that their job may not be motivating them the way it motivates a person who is willing to work a hundred hours a week . What I am also saying is that the person who works 40 hours probably wants to grow in other areas in life , and develop him or herself . How often have we seen people who are interested in other things like art , science , reading or gaming ! The fact is that we all want to develop ourselves , the only question is - what is our area of motivation and development

The final category is Optimism /Pessimism : Are we basically good or evil I have raged myself B here . I believe that I am good and I want to do good . I want to give and add to the world . We take so much that we do not even count , every ounce of water that we take from this earth is something we take and never think about . It is the mot natural thing to do and yet I say that we are all good and want to add positively to life and the world around us . Don 't we want to help a pregnant woman ? Don 't we want to help an old couple cross the street ? We may not always do such simple acts , but the fact is that when we miss doing them , they come back and haunt us - we tell ourselves , I was in a hurry . We make an excuse . We do not put our thoughts into action , but the core is all good , the core is clean , and pious ...