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the_jesus_fandom's review against another edition
4.0
What a super useful book. I love it when books make difficult concepts digestible by dividing it into smaller compartments (yes that sounds a bit like box-thinking, but you have to do something to breach a topic like this)
charityjohnson's review against another edition
2.0
Sire is another author with good ideas, but whose expression just doesn't speak to me. Sorry. I know lots of people who LOVE his ideas and his expression. Don't let my review stop you from checking him out!
cmcuffman's review against another edition
3.0
In transparency, I did not read this book cover-to-cover. I skimmed most of it, because I found that pretty much all of the material has been covered (much better, I might add) elsewhere. I struggled, not so much with Sire's definition of a worldview ("a set of presuppositions which we hold about the basic makeup of our world") but with how that played out (the setting forth of 8 dominating "world views" in the world today). Sire is correct in asserting that "We could multiply world views to fit the number of conscious inhabitants of the universe at any one time," and that is precisely the problem with laying out 8 and calling them "world views." This is a book review, and not a discussion of philosophy, but it seems that the way I view the world is going to be very different from the way anyone else views the world, and to lump that together with all of the other "theists" or "existentialists" is sort of crude.
Anyway, if someone isn't yet thinking in "world view" categories (aren't most of us by now?) and needs an introduction, this book could be helpful. Or if someone is interested in general patterns of thought which were dominant in the west...in 1976, this could be an interesting book. Personally, I only found the chapter on Existentialism and parts of the one on Eastern Pantheistic Monism to really be interesting. Probably wouldn't recommend, but I suppose it's helpful to hear how other people are/were thinking on this subject.
**Edited August 3, 2012**
I ended up reading the entire book, and I raised my rating by 1 star. There is a lot of helpful information in this book, though I'm still not convinced of the use of placing worldviews into categories like Sire does. Again, it's not a bad book for someone interested in the major systems of thought from 30 years ago, and it could help people to start thinking in world view categories. I'd rather think in terms of religious or philosophical systems if we're going to do that with large groups in mind, but that's just me.
Anyway, if someone isn't yet thinking in "world view" categories (aren't most of us by now?) and needs an introduction, this book could be helpful. Or if someone is interested in general patterns of thought which were dominant in the west...in 1976, this could be an interesting book. Personally, I only found the chapter on Existentialism and parts of the one on Eastern Pantheistic Monism to really be interesting. Probably wouldn't recommend, but I suppose it's helpful to hear how other people are/were thinking on this subject.
**Edited August 3, 2012**
I ended up reading the entire book, and I raised my rating by 1 star. There is a lot of helpful information in this book, though I'm still not convinced of the use of placing worldviews into categories like Sire does. Again, it's not a bad book for someone interested in the major systems of thought from 30 years ago, and it could help people to start thinking in world view categories. I'd rather think in terms of religious or philosophical systems if we're going to do that with large groups in mind, but that's just me.
shortthoughts's review against another edition
3.0
A great introduction to worldviews. Sire defines worldview as: ". . . a set of presuppositions (or assumptions)which we hold (consciously or subconsciously) about the basic makeup of our world." It involves what we think about life, death, the afterlife, morality, ethics, absolute truth, etc. In a Christian worldview, we adopt the presuppositions of the Bible. There are other worldviews and Sire does a good job summarizing them. It's a good book and I recommend it.