Contextual World View Essay

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Six hundred years ago western culture adopted the general scientific model as an unproven assumed perspective. The general scientific model developed as a phenomenon of knowledge that could be tested and replicated by all. The general scientific model presents a foundation of perception upon which theories, assumptions, and most beliefs are based off. Only confined by human limitations, the general scientific model is perceived to have endless possibilities of achievable knowledge. According to the general scientific model there are simply four basic assumptions that base the key to all knowledge: every event has a cause, causes can be known, humans can discover the causes of events, and ignorance of causes is due to improper tools (Portko, …show more content…

Similarly to the mechanistic and organismic views the contextual world view includes all living organisms, individuals and groups that make up a whole, however differing in that all organisms and their environments are perceived as changing continuously. The contextual world view is the broadest of the views, more integrated than the organismic world view by encompassing the ability for greater knowledge. Present situations of organisms are seen as being a result of the past and an effect of what is to come of the future (Portko, An Introduction to World Views). Within the contextual world view are six underlying assumptions, first being that all organism remain active and have the ability of control to initiate activity (Portko, An Introduction to World Views). Contrasting from the mechanistic and organismic world views in that the environment or the organism cause actions and reactions, the contextual world view assumes that both the environment and the organism actively cause activity. Activity is best described as a contribution from both the organism and the environment, and is no longer described as an action-reaction sequence (Portko, An Introduction to World Views). Organisms no longer work on a forward moving path as in previous theories but instead in a “spiral path” meaning multiple influences and outcomes are possible from one action (Portko, An Introduction to World Views). Being that organism’s activity can have multiple influences that result in multiple possible outcomes each aspect much be studied to determine as many possible factors. “The variables of time, place, culture, physical environment, individual organism 's characteristics etc. all play contributing roles to the behavior that emerges”

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