I want to speculate how I, and by extension you, come to at
least some of your worldview. This will provide both my first framework and my
first continuum.
When topics about the physical world come up we are often asked
to decide if we believe in things like evolution or climate change. But there
are other concepts of the physical world that we accept without condition. No rational adult, for instance, questions
the roundness of the earth, its rotation on its axis, or its orbit around the
sun. We don’t say we believe in any of these properties; they just are this
way. Another concept that we rarely think about is the fact that we are made up
of atoms which are mostly empty space and that if all that space were removed
the actual space we would take up would be little larger that a single
molecule.
These
irrefutable facts then I would take to be core beliefs defined as the
very essence of how we see physical the world. That said I would maintain that
these core beliefs are dogmatic in nature. Dogma is most commonly thought of in
connection with church doctrine and practice but it is more broadly defined as, “Something held as
an established opinion; especially : a definite authoritative tenet
[1] ”
as the dictionary defines it, or “to entertain some opinions on trust and without discussion.”
[2]as de
Tocqueville defines it or most succinctly, we believe it because THEY said it.
We don’t accept these
facts because this is the way we experience the world. Everywhere we look the
world spreads out flat before us; everyday the sun rises in the east and sets
in the west; sun is higher or lower in the sky as the seasons change but it
visibly moves in relation to us and not the other way around. And of course Gibraltar, for instance, is
solid as a rock and not really mostly nothing.
If dogma drives much of
our belief of the physical world we live in how much more of a role must it
play in our views politics, philosophy, culture and the like?
De Tocqueville points out
the following characteristics of dogma:
It is ubiquitous. “At different
periods dogmatic belief is more or less common. It arises in different ways,
and it may change its object and its form; but under no circumstances will
dogmatic belief cease to exist, or, in other words, men will never cease to
entertain some opinions on trust and without discussion.”
It is necessary for society. “If everyone undertook to form all his own
opinions and to seek for truth by isolated paths struck out by himself alone,
it would follow that no considerable number of men would ever unite in any
common belief.
But obviously without such common belief no
society can prosper; say, rather, no society can exist; for without ideas held
in common there is no common action, and without common action there may still
be men, but there is no social body.”[3]
This is not only necessary but desirable for the individual . . . “A man who should undertake to inquire into everything for himself could devote to each thing but little time and attention. His task would keep his mind in perpetual unrest, which would prevent him from penetrating to the depth of any truth or of making his mind adhere firmly to any conviction.”[5]
. . . But what is desirable comes at a cost one must necessarily pay. “His intellect would be at once independent and powerless. He must therefore make his choice from among the various objects of human belief and adopt many opinions without discussion in order to search the better into that smaller number which he sets apart for investigation. It is true that whoever receives an opinion on the word of another does so far enslave his mind, but it is a salutary servitude, which allows him to make a good use of freedom.”[6] (My emphasis)
The framework I would ask
you to consider is the idea that the vast majority of your ideas arise from
dogma. You like de Tocqueville’s philosopher “believe a million things
on the faith of other.” You accept this “salutary servitude” so that you can
create your own frameworks.
The
continuum is the degree you accept this “salutary servitude” and how deep you
are willing to dig to empirically prove your position.
Dogma
then is ubiquitous and both a limiting and emancipating way we acquire our view
of the world. Understanding it in this
way may lead us to have some humility of our own worldview and less contempt
for the worldview of others with whom we disagree.
Dogma
shapes or is perhaps the foundation of most of our core beliefs. However, there are other forces that shape
these core beliefs that I would touch upon in the next entry.
