Functional Worldview

4.3

The functional thinking, compared to the Ontological and Mythical thinking, has a more
personal approach. It is based on ones understanding of common
sense/concepts/roots/experience. Each one of us has a different approach towards life
and our surroundings.

This type of thinking reveals a strong adherence to contextualisms extremely practical

ruth criterion and can be likened to the enterprise of science or engineering, in which
general rules and principles are used to predict and influence
events.(http://www.aect.org/edtech/edition3/ER5849x_C006.fm.pdf)

One of the advantages of the functional worldview is being freed from the idea of there
can only be one meaning. Each meaning is given by a different individual, based on his
experience/relationships/concepts. Everyone has a different opinion regarding a certain
object, so there are more meanings and truths.

One of the differences between the functional worldview and the other two, ontological
and magical, is the concept of time. If in the mythical thinking we had a circular one, in
the ontological thinking a linear one, here, time doesnt exist, or its represented as a
dot. What happens/exists now is important and what we see, through our perspective is
the truth (for us). People filter each idea/object/concept through their perception,
through their point of view, evolved from events.

In functional thinking is man (subject) outside the world (object) as in the ontological
worldview, but the relationship is characterized by interaction, perception (reception)
and projection. This means that each truth is transformed into multiple relative truths,
considering the fact that each person experiences an event in a different way and
remains with different ideas, impressions.

In functional worldview, to come to a conclusion, to solve a problem, you just have to

follow the protocol, the manual. For example, in the previous points of the assignment,
I chose a picture of a sidewalk with a tree planted right in the middle of it, blocking the
way. I made a correlation between this problem/error made by a construction worker
and a way to solve it. This is way Ive chosen a instruction manual of a chainsaw, the
only logical and practical way to fix this issue being to remove the tree from the
sidewalk.

Another example was the road which was paved around a car with a flat tire. The
manual I correlated it to was one of a jack, the tool used to change the tires. The owner
couldnt move his car, in order to give space to the workers, and in response, the
workers just paved the road around it, not caring that the car would be stuck. A solution
to that it could be replacing the tire, using a jack.

In conclusion, the functional worldview is based on a series of events and experiences

of an individual who, later, will associate his ideas or some objects to them. There is not
only one truth or one meaning to something, because each experience is unique for
everyone.