Which world?
Exploring how ontologies and cosmologies shape worldviews

Life is interrelation and interdependence through and through, always and from the beginning.
- Arturo Escobar (2017)
Overview
Worldviews emerge from fundamental beliefs about the nature of reality. These deeply rooted and strongly held beliefs, though rarely discussed explicitly, significantly impact decisions and actions in the world - often without notice.
Philosophy traditionally examines these underlying assumptions. In the European tradition, the study of fundamental beliefs about the history, structure, and meaning of the world is called cosmology. The closely related field of ontology examines questions of existence - what exists and how it came to be. These intertwined concepts mutually reinforce each other in fundamental ways.
This brief overview explores recurring cosmological and ontological premises that have influenced paradigms of thought. Rather than attempting an exhaustive account of beliefs across cultures, it offers a focused overview to inform and clarify evolving perspectives.
Which world?
At first glance, defining "world" appears straightforward: it represents the broad context of experienced reality, and a worldview encompasses beliefs about that perceived reality.
The concept reveals deeper complexity upon examination. The world manifests through multiple lenses - physical, mental, spiritual - and through collective systems of culture, law, and education. The term extends to meanings ranging from Earth itself to other planets and the entire universe.
This multifaceted nature of "world" presents profound questions. Scholars have extensively explored this complexity, examining the nature of this "world of many worlds" (de la Cadena and Blaser, 2018). Key questions emerge: What relationships exist between these worlds? How do they interweave? What responsibilities do they entail? Which deserve priority?
Understanding these questions demands examination through cosmological and ontological frameworks. While cosmologies present comprehensive worldviews, ontologies investigate fundamental features. These mutually reinforcing approaches inform both philosophy and practice.
Cosmology
What is cosmology?
Cosmology (from Greek kosmos "order, the world" + -logia "study") explores the overall structure of the world and humanity's relationship to it, investigating fundamental questions about its nature, origins, and potential.
Modern physical cosmology aligns closely with astronomy and astrophysics. However, diverse approaches have emerged from various cultural and ecological contexts throughout history. These develop through scientific, philosophical, and spiritual/religious practices, with often blurred boundaries between these domains (Hetherington 1993).
Alfred North Whitehead (1929) describes cosmologies as attempts to "construct a system of ideas which bring the aesthetic, moral, and religious interests into relation with those concepts of the world which have their origin in natural science." Joseph Campbell (1986) adds that cosmology fulfills psychological and mythical functions through poetry and symbolism.
Why does it matter?
Cosmological beliefs fundamentally shape how humans interpret reality. These beliefs influence everything from personal behavior to civilizational trajectories in subtle yet profound ways (Chandler, 2001). Though integral to cultural belief systems, their influence often goes unnoticed, leading to underestimated consequences. Understanding the origins and effects of different cosmologies enables more conscious adoption of suitable frameworks.
Cosmologies of separation
Cosmologies of separation divide the cosmos into dualistic and hierarchical structures (e.g. ideals and forms, physics and metaphysics, humans and nature).
Western divisions trace primarily to Plato's theory of forms. His concept of divided ideals and forms became foundational to both Western religion and natural philosophy.
The idea of a predictable, clock-like universe gained prominence during the European scientific revolution. This view assumed eternal scientific laws governed phenomena, discoverable through objective observation, reasoning, and quantification. These laws could then predict and control nature. This mechanistic worldview shaped modern science through tensions between rationalism and empiricism.
This separative cosmology reinforced ideas of atomistic individuals, setting the stage for modern humanist revolutions. These emphasized progress, liberty, and reason characteristic of the Age of Enlightenment, ideas that both justified and challenged Western colonization.
Darwinian evolution appeared to challenge this anthropocentric view by placing humans as one branch on life's tree. However, social Darwinists co-opted the concept of survival of the fittest to justify competition, selfishness, austerity, and inequity. These views provided "natural" justification for an extractive, zero-sum global economy that preceded modern neoliberalism. Today, objectivist cosmology continues shaping scientific, technological, economic, and socio-political systems (Tresch 2014).
Two premises closely associated with Western separation cosmology include:
- Dominating: Through concepts like the great chain of being, domination reinforced ideas of natural order in European economic and governance systems. This justified practices of royalty, colonization, racism, patriarchy, ownership, and anthropocentrism (Lovejoy 1936; Asma 1995).
- Mechanistic: The clockwork universe metaphor emerged with mechanical philosophy during the European scientific revolution, viewing living beings as machines reducible to component parts (Henning and Scarfe 2013).
Cosmologies of relations
Relational cosmologies view all life as interrelated, entangled within co-evolutionary relationships.
Relational cosmologies appear across many traditions. They view life as an autocatalytic force, transforming entropy into order, self-organizing across scales, and shaping its own evolutionary trajectory through emergent properties and processes. Living systems in particular are autopoietic — self-producing, self-maintaining, and environment-cognizing — and emerge through nested relations (Gilbert et al 2012). New species regularly arise through union with other species, through symbiotic processes that transcend anthropomorphic projections of competitive versus coöperative relations (Margulis 1998; Margulis and Sagan 1995).
Key premises associated with relational cosmologies include:
Organic: The world can be understood through the metaphor of a living entity and through the dynamics of living systems.
Co-Evolutionary: The world is composed of complex and intermingled relationships between co-evolving microscopic and macroscopic life which shape and are shaped by their environments (Montgomery and Biklé 2015).
Recommended Readings
Critical Perspectives
Deloria Jr., Vine. The Metaphysics of Modern Existence (Reprint Edition). Golden: Fulcrum Publishing, 2012.
Merchant, Carolyn. The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. New York: HarperCollins, 1980.
Nagel, Thomas. Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False. Oxford University Press, 2012.
Sheldrake, Rupert. *Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery.* New York: Deepak Chopra Books, 2012.
Shepherd, Linda Jean. Lifting the Veil: The Feminine Face of Science. Boston: Shambhala, 1993.
Stengers, Isabelle. The Invention of Modern Science. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000.
Tarnas, Richard. The Passion Of The Western Mind: Understanding The Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991.
Tarnas, Richard and Chief Oren Lyons. "Thanksgiving in the Cosmos: The New Enlightenment." Bioneers.
Tresch, John. "Cosmologies Materialized: History of Science and History of Ideas." In Rethinking Modern European Intellectual History. McMahon, Darrin M. and Samuel Moyn. Eds. Oxford University Press, 2014. 152-172.
Vetlesen, A. J. (2019). Cosmologies of the Anthropocene : Panpsychism, Animism, and the Limits of Posthumanism. Routledge
Timelines
American Institute of Physics. Cosmic Journey: A History of Scientific Cosmology.
Wikipedia. Timeline of Scientific Thought.
Wootton, David. The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution. New York: Harper Collins, 2015.
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Ontology
What is ontology?
Ontology (derived from Greek ontos ""being" + -logia "study") is a term coined in the early 17th century to describe the philosophical study of the nature of being and existence. It explores fundamental questions about what is real, what exists, and the relationships between being and becoming.
In Western philosophy, ontology examines the entities and essences that form metaphysical systems, a complex endeavor with profound implications for other philosophical areas. Key ontological questions include:
- What can be said to exist?
- What is a thing?
- Into what categories, if any, can existing things be sorted?
- What are the meanings of being?
- What are the various modes of being of entities?
Why does it matter?
Ontology reveals how beliefs about existence shape how people imagine and enact their worlds.
Ontological beliefs create different ways of living and being. They shape how people relate to existence, understand what's possible, and engage in world-making practices. These beliefs often go unexamined and are mistaken for reality itself. Their influence remains hidden unless consciously explored. This has led to increased academic interest in recent years through the ontological turn (Gullion 2018), particularly examining how ontological beliefs shape worlds across diverse cultural contexts (Escobar 2017).
Metaphors, practices, and habits of thought both shape and are shaped by ontologies.
Like Cosmological Premises, metaphors and practices significantly influence ontological beliefs. These beliefs then filter how people experience and conceive of the world. As Bollier and Helfrich note, ontologies act as "windows through which we see the world," filtering perceptions of what is real and possible (2019).
Two broad categories of ontological premises emerge:
Ontologies of separation
These divide existence into rigid dualities (e.g. subject and object, mind and body, self and other), often privileging one side over the other.
Dualistic ontology, also known as Cartesian ontology (Escobar 2017; Wildman 2010), describes the dominant Western philosophical view of being. This perspective holds that entities or things are existence's primary substances. Stemming from René Descartes' quest for ontological certainty, this ontology remains influential in modern science, education, and politics.
Key premises of separation ontologies include:
- Bifurcated: The mind and body are separate, distinct substances (see mind-body dualism).
- Reductionist: The material world is atomistic and can be explained via reductionist methodologies.
Ontologies of relations
Relational ontologies see relationships as the foundation of existence — the connections between entities matter more than the entities themselves.
These ontologies maintain that "no entity is self-sufficient, that each thing becomes what it is and sustains itself in its distinctness from others by way of relating to them" (Vetlesen 2020, 59). Common in non-Western worldviews (see Escobar 2017), these ideas have also emerged in contemporary Western science and philosophy (see relationalism).
The term relation comes from roots meaning connection, correspondence, an act of telling, and restoring (OED 2020). Relations take many forms, including "emotional, physical, mechanical, technological, cultural, moral, sexual, aesthetic, logical, and imaginary relations, to name a few" (Wildman 2010, 55).
Key principles of relational ontologies include:
- Complementary: Embracing the mutuality of opposites, rather than the rigid divisions of dualist thinking.
- Emergent: Properties and behaviors arise from interactions and relations, not pre-existing independently.
- Nested: Being and reality exist in layers. Relations are situated, nested, and fractal, unique to specific contexts and places.
- Networked: Phenomena emerge from non-hierarchical assemblages that are diverse and hybrid.
- Pluralistic: Different ontologies emerge from distinct relational contexts (cultural, ecological, etc).
From separating to relating
The misconception which has haunted philosophical literature throughout the centuries is the notion of 'independent existence.' There is no such mode of existence: every entity is to be understood in terms of the way it is interwoven with the rest of the universe.
- Alfred North Whitehead (1948)
The paradigm of separation has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The anthropocentric view that humans are separate from — and dominate — nature has created conditions leading to the proposed Anthropocene epoch (Vetlesen 2019). Many practices stemming from this worldview have ignored the vital relationships between humanity and the web of life. This has made the world of extractive economics increasingly hostile to diverse cultures and species.
Yet Western scientific ideas and methods have had complex, even paradoxical effects on human well-being. Many of these ideas have actually affirmed the deep interconnectedness of the world, contributing to what scholars call the relational paradigm (Walsh et al 2020). This approach moves beyond rigid dualities to see entities and phenomena as fundamentally shaped by dynamic relationships.
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