The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

Sire quotes from two poems that represent two diametrically opposed worldviews: Stephen Crane’s War is Kind and Other Lines and the 8th Psalm from the Book of Psalms—the former representing nihilism and the latter biblical theism. Sire argues that although many people today feel themselves unable to believe in theism, they still long for the assurance and order that it brings. Meanwhile, many who believe theism nevertheless feel the “tug” of the alternative worldview, leading to “alienation, loneliness, even despair” (3).

Sire states the thesis and purpose of the book: to provide an outline of the major worldviews, to trace their history, and to help readers to “think in terms of worldviews” so as better to “communicate with others in our pluralistic society” (3-4). The chapters will attempt to sketch the worldviews in relatively brief and simple terms, but bibliographical footnotes will be included for readers who want to go into greater depth.

In the remainder of the chapter, Sire defines worldview and establishes the book’s parameters and method. Sire defines worldview as a basic framework for thought and action. It is a “commitment” of the heart and soul, “expressed in a story or a set of presuppositions” (7), which serves as “the foundation on which we live” (8). Because worldview is so fundamental, analyzing it is “a significant step toward self-awareness, self-knowledge, and self-understanding” (6).

In his definition of worldview on Page 6, Sire establishes four parameters of worldview:

1. Worldview is a commitment, a matter of the heart and soul.
2. Worldview can be expressed as a story or as a set of presuppositions.
3. These assumptions may be true or false, conscious or unconscious, consistent or inconsistent.
4. Worldview serves as the foundation on which we live.

The chapters will analyze worldviews in terms of “eight basic questions,” outlined in Pages 8-10. The eight questions deal with the following topics:

1. prime reality
2. external reality
3. human nature
4. death and afterlife
5. the nature of knowledge
6. morality
7. the meaning of history
8. personal, life-orienting core commitments

For each question, Sire lists possible answers that could be given by various worldviews; these answers provide a foretaste of the detailed worldview analysis of the following chapters. Sire emphasizes that these questions demand to be answered one way or another; no matter how we answer them, and even if we consider them unanswerable, we have adopted a worldview whether consciously or not. Indeed, more often than not our worldview is unconscious, taken for granted but nevertheless underlying our actions. Sire adds that sometimes a worldview is expressed as a “story” or narrative rather than as a set of abstract propositions.