Via Natalia Shvedova, we can delineate six different ways of looking at the world. Actually there are probably more, but she has only chopped reality up into six slices. My thoughts in bold and then after. Shvedova original conception is in italic.
1. The Spiritual, Religious, Mystical or Ethereal World. Also the world of ultimate meanings, values and morals.
The world, perceived by man as everything higher,
incomprehensible or unknown, mysterious, or on the
contrary, as if everything is given to man from time
immemorial as eternally predestined.
In this world man perceives as the ultimate — everything beyond his understanding and will, defining his life and serendipity like unquestionably existing, but enigmatic which can manifest itself as something preternatural, beyond all known laws of physics. The resolute existence of this world dictates such categories of morality which are understood by man somehow that he must be guided by the absolute standard of his behavior in private or public life.
Concepts in this world are related to the origin of man’s
life and his integral relation to where he was given life,
and where his “roots” come from.
2. The Real World or the Cold, Hard, Brutal World. The capricious, irrational world of existential dilemma where we have little or no agency, are at the whim of powers beyond ourselves, are severely restricted and are essentially in a trap of time.
The world in terms of which everything exists, advances,
interacts and perceived by man not only as he does not
depend on it, but also as it determines his existence on this planet.
This world is understood by man as a perpetual and continuous sphere of time and space where he exists, as
already known eternal boundaries he cannot submit to,
although he can measure, compare and collocate them, yet is powerless and incapable of escaping from it.
3. Gaia or the Natural World.
The non-anthropocentric world where all living things or all natural things are connected and bound together in a wondrous tapestry.
This world naturally surrounds man. His binding to this world is continuously recognized, and is within the scope of man’s knowledge. It is dynamically explored, occupied and studied by him, where he is conveniently euphoric for his little discoveries, but obdurately ignorant to accept his own defeat in the understanding of basic and elementary phenomena whether material or immaterial.
Everything in this world is related to all spheres in man’s life and activities; to airspace and land, including either hostile fauna, preventing his vital activities, or domesticated fauna, facilitating his viable being or existence in the environment.
4. The World of the Self, the Ego, the I, the Man Himself.
Man’s existential world — man himself.
In this everything is directly related to his life and death, to his body, spirit and mind, to his labor and
actions that are determined by his behavior, and is
dictated by either prevailed circumstances, or by his
disposition — his own ego and alter ego.
5. The World of Society. The sociological or anthropological world of men where no man is an island. The manipulated and changed world that revolves around man, his society and his wants, needs, desires and fears. In the West, the world of careers, law, medicine, contracts and money. Also the world of social space and human interaction.
The man-generated world — where everything is constituted as his own and governed by sets of rules — is in existence based on a narrow or wide scale of mandatory interaction with other men.
This world is created by man voluntarily or involuntarily based on his vital necessities to sustain life. These are either historically stipulated prescriptions, or a field of permanent contacts, collisions or struggle for existence. In any case, man is engaged in this world as its creator, and as the one, who obeys the laws around the very world he established as if he is the one who cannot exist outside this particular environment.
6. The Creative or Created World and the Intellectual or Philosophical World.
The world of man’s mind, learning, progress, endeavors and creativity. The airy, male dominated world of ideas and concepts.
The world that is created by man as a higher synthesis of the activity of his own mind and spirit.
The sphere of man’s faith, thought, speech, products of his mind and talent have been devised in this world. It is the world of man’s mind of generalizations and abstractions and of all previously thought-up and significant achievements have been formed.
References
- Russkiy ideograficheskiy slovar’, pod red. N. Y. U. Shvedovoy, § 3, str. VII. Rossiyskaya Akademiya nauk, Moskva, 2011. (Shvedova, N. Y., editor. 2011. Russian Thesaurus, § 3, p. VII. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences.)
