Conception of the World
Conception of the World describes the ensemble of values and interpretations of reality — implicitly or explicitly distinct to a specific human group — whether a people, a civilisation, a family of thought, political or not, a religion, etc. One speaks, almost indifferently, of a ‘worldview’.
Definition
The conception-of-the-world transcends — goes beyond — political doctrines, as well as ideologies, and can even comprise several antagonistic ideologies, often based on the same principles. For example, the liberal Right and the socialist Left, progressive Christians and atheistic cosmopolitans, share the same general conception of the world. A conception-of-the-world comprises the intellectual and spiritual, rational and intuitive facets. It’s different from culture, in which several conceptions of the world can coexist within it. A conception-of-the-world implies a political and historical project, along with a specific view of man’s nature.
In the European, Western universe, there are two opposed conceptions-of-the-world. The dominant one, issuing from Judaeo-Christianity, is egalitarian, individualistic, and cosmopolitan. The other, more or less censored today, and derived from ancient Nordic paganism, can be called inegalitarian, communalist, and ethnic. With Friedrich Nietzsche, the latter achieved conscious philosophical formulation. Certain people, like Christian traditionalists, share aspects of both conceptions of the world, living an inner contradiction. It’s the war over conceptions-of-the-world, to which myths are evidently associated, that ultimately affects history’s course.
