Untitled Document

Developing a Definitionist Worldview

By Shaun Michael Samaroo
March 2, 2008
Toronto, ON
Canada

Worldviews come in all forms. The presupposition worldview happens to be my favorite, and can easily be researched. Other worldviews can be described as philosophical, theological, mathematical, political, economic, sociological, historical/traditionalist, etc..

To develop a Definitionist Worldview, a person must decide to live based on the correct definition of words, concepts, thoughts and any other communication that shapes space-time.
We can see the value that the world places on an Economic Worldview through the meaning attached to words and concepts such as Success, Freedom, Money and Material things.
Definition in language currently falls into two broad mutually exclusive and opposing categories, being a. connotation, or b. denotation.

Connotation describes the emotional or colloquial meaning attached to a thought, word or concept. Denotation describes the rational or 'dictionary' meaning of a thought, word or concept. The verbs in connotation communication tend to be graphic, concrete, active and, in English, use the simpler language form - monosyllabic, short, active and concrete words. The connotation form of English developed from the old Anglo Saxon invaders who conquered England. Simple folks use this form for everyday communication. The verbs of the denotation form of the language, on the other hand, derive from the Latin roots that penetrated the England culture. Denotation words are multi- and polysyllabic - long, abstract, and generally used by government, legal and justice officials and in any official communication.

To seek the Definitionist meaning of communicated language as proposed here, though, is to go deeper than the emotive or rational meaning of words, thoughts and concepts.
According to the great thinker and theologian Watchman Nee, human beings have their emotive and rational selves centered in the soulish realm of our being. If we are made up of a trinity of beings - body, soul and spirit - then the connotation and denotation definition of language restricts us to the realm of the soulish creature, which means we are merely the most intelligent of animals in the scheme of life. We become biological creatures with animal instincts as the foundation for our motivations. This would, of course, give credence to Charles Darwin's evolution theory, and that the fittest of the animal world survives and dominates the others. We act based purely on survival instinct. This would make even Freud's philosophy right and therefore the bible for society.

But humankind, Nee proposed, constitute more than emotion and mind. The great thinker posited that humankind constitute the body self (made up of the five physical senses and flesh and blood and nerves and bones); the soul self (made up of emotion, mind and will - the part of us that decides to act); and spirit (made up of intuition and conscience). The conscience and intuition in a spiritually sensitive person motivates the will to act in the individual. Nee thought that people in the world make decisions on one of three levels. Those who live 'fleshly' act on the motivation of base passions; they allow only the physical senses to inform the will. Those who live from the soul allow emotions or rationalism ( the mind) to inform the will: they are motivated for action based on emotions or mental powers. Those who make decisions to act from the spirit allow the conscience and the intuition to motivate the will to act. The spirit is superior to the soul, which is superior to the body.

So if we follow Watchman's Nee's thesis that humankind possess a spirit that is superior to the soul, then we can safely suggest that humankind gather their foundation motivation, their deep inspiration for action, from a deeper well of our being than mere instinct (base passions). Rather, Nee proposes, at our optimal potential, we gather our deep motivations and inspirations for action from the wellspring of our individual intuition and our individual conscience. Nee argues, convincingly, that an individual's intuition and conscience make up that person's spiritual self. In other words, our foundational motivation and inspiration for action ought to flow out of that self in every person that embodies the spirit. This, we can safely say, forms the building block for civilization, with the tenets of human rights and humane living.

Adopting this theory as truth, we then apply the definition of language on this spiritual level. We may call this application 'spiritual intelligence'. And we may further summarize spiritual intelligence as our ability to understand - not just to comprehend, but to understand, which means to comprehend with empathy: empathy being a quality that flows from our conscience, but directed into wise (safe, sane) action, through our intuition. This intuitive ability must be sensitized and sharpened.

It is this sharpening, this sensitizing of a person's conscience and intuition that comes from living with a Definitionist Worldview.

By a Definitionist Worldview I mean the depth of mental awareness to define terms, thoughts, words, concepts and theories in a way as to find their spiritual meaning. This simply means that words, thoughts, theories, concepts must all lead to understanding: understanding ourselves as unique individuals, understanding the context in which we exist - the world environment and our social space, and understanding the universal scheme of life. When we look out to the vastness of the sky on a dark night when the moon shines brightly against the background of blinking stars, we must have an understanding of what we are looking at. We must, in other words, not understand ourselves to be lost in the grand scheme of the universe. To live a Definitionist Worldview, we must learn to think with empathy (understand) and act on our conviction thereafter (which I believe is what we mean by wisdom - action out of empathetic comprehension, or understanding). We must understand, then act.

How do we achieve this Definitionist Worldview?

First, we must understand that nature of definition. To define language, traditionally, is to describe our words, thoughts, concepts, theories and so on, in terms of either connotation or denotation. There is a fundamental problem with this, because connotation speaks of the past, while denotation speaks of what is now. To use connotation definition is to dig into our memory, our experiences, our past: how our emotional reactions were shaped and molded. So language that functions only on connotation meaning harps us back to our past, and therefore fails to equip us with a forward looking worldview - a worldview that prepares us to advance forward into the future. Connotation meaning describes the 'feeling' sense of language. It basically answers the question 'how do I feel about…(based on my memory and my experiences)?'
Denotation, on the other hand, keeps us rooted in the now, even as now is vaporizing before our very eyes. Denotation describes 'what' meaning is, at it stands immobilized in space-time, symbolized admirably by the fact that denotation meaning can be found in the static of a dictionary form. It simply asks 'what is…?'

The deeper aspect of a Definition Worldview affects our presuppositions and constantly questions our assumptions, associations, feelings and thinking.

As individuals, we want to develop a Definitionist Worldview that centers in our intuition and our conscience. This means that we must approach language - words, thoughts, concepts, theories, and of course truths, with the intention of understanding. This understanding must be relative to us as unique individuals; relative to the world order of this civilization, in recognition of historical civilization; and relative to the universal scheme of life.

To look and see (comprehend) with empathy and act accordingly equips us as human beings to live with a new energy.

Should we strive to define our world with this understanding and act with this new energy, we could shape a more humane lifestyle for the global community of individuals.
We must recognize that the world is a global community of individuals, and each individual is important, valuable, worthwhile and integral to the perfect care-taking of the total life-system of the global community.

A Definitionist Worldview prepares us, therefore, for a future. To define our communication and language with an eye to sensitizing and awakening our conscience and our intuition so as to achieve understanding is to de-emphasize defining life's meaning with an eye to the past - relying on our memory and experiences. It is to dispel defining life's meaning in static bureaucratic, rationalistic 'dictionary' terms.

Amazingly, governments' and society's leaders use denotation definition in their communication with the 'masses' - the people. And the people use connotation language to define their lives. So we have an immediate misunderstanding going on, because the ruled stand on one level - looking back into their memory and their experiences, and the leaders stand on another level, looking at what is at their feet. So the two sections of the global community of individuals become groups looking through different windows at life and trying to communicate to each other for solutions to what each perceives is the problem with society (the organizing of themselves).
To develop a new Definitionist Worldview is for every individual in the global community - ruled and ruler - to come together with mutual understanding - to look at life through the same window, and to act from the same uniquely human spiritual depth of conscience and intuition.
So, how can anyone develop this Definitionist Worldview? We must develop an awareness, an alertness of mind, to listen carefully to what we hear. We must develop keen observation skills. We must learn to dissect language and how literary devices are used to design meaning. We must develop the ability to think critically about the language that flows through us and around us, especially given our knowledge based world that rides upon the demanding waves of communication and information overflow.

To live with a Definitionist Worldview is to strive to develop the ability to understand - to act out of empathetic awareness for the uneven tides of life in this space-time dimension we live in.
Worldviews are important. A worldview gives us the basic form into which we fit all that is communicated to us and that we communicate to the world around us. A worldview is the filter through which we define our world.

We have developed the worldview of thinking from the past, which amazes me, because the past is over and done with. We learn from our experiences, and we must tune in to our memory because memory forms the foundation on which we build the future. We also live with the worldview of the 'present', thinking that now is the most important time to occupy the space I have. So the average person in this global community of individuals live with the worldview of the past and the present, not realizing that the past is forever gone and the present is so fleeting that it is virtually, in reality, non-existent.

What becomes important is the future, because that time will be here. It is coming, absolutely. And so our life must be a preparation for the future. Therefore, our worldview must prepare us for the time of the future, including the future after our body has died. Our worldview must prepare us for a future occupation of space. In other words, humankind perpetually advances forward. This is illustrated in the fact that we tell time - calendars, almanacs, watches, clocks, with an eye to the future, not to the past, and now is too fleeting to say we live in the now. For even as you read this sentence, now is gone forever.

So we must develop the Definitionist Worldview in order to educate our imagination with the ability to design our destiny, to advance into the future, and to focus on the destination ahead. This means we have to understand that our imagination plays a huge role in our life. The world today believes that the memory sits on the throne of what it means to be human. But really it is the imagination that should sit on the throne. And living from the imagination gives us the ability to design the pathway into the future that we know, based on memory, is the best way forward. And the only way to 'see' the future imaginatively with any sense and understanding is to develop the professional life skill to act through our intuition from a fully sensitive conscience. And our conscience can only be sensitized and out intuition toned and made fit through a Definitionist Worldview - the ability to define words, thoughts, concepts, theories, truths - communication and language - from the depths of the spirit, seeking only to understand, to acquire empathetic comprehension.

Life is not about how we feel - our emotional reaction based on past memory and experience. Nor is life about our thinking - what we rationalize as meaning based on what we learn from the past and apply to now. Rather, life is about what we understand - how we act intuitively with a sensitive conscience, recognizing that we advance forward into the future as unique individuals in a global community.

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