The New World Encyclopedia (NWE) is designed to organize human knowledge so the reader will learn information not just for its own sake, but for its value to the reader and the world as a whole. It is designed to provide the context and values of our social and organizational relationships, and our relationship with nature and the environment.
The underlying goal of the encyclopedia is to promote knowledge that leads to human happiness, well-being, world peace. It is a useful tool for everyone, and an ideal resource for student research.
Today, computer and internet encyclopedias largely have replaced print encyclopedias. Wikipedia has stunned the world, charting new horizons in the organization and presentation of knowledge, participating as it does as a leading force in the open source revolution. It has shaken assumptions regarding knowledge and scholarship to their roots. Its reliability has been challenged because of its policy to let anyone contribute to it, but it has stood up remarkably to tests and comparisons to conventional compendia such as the Encyclopedia Britannica. It should be noted that the Encyclopedia Britannica has adapted impressively with its own electronic version during these challenging times of transition.
New World Encyclopedia is a wiki-based encyclopedia which contains carefully selected articles that are rewritten and supervised by a team of editors with academic and literary qualifications. New World Encyclopedia has the same ease of use as Wikipedia, but differs based on an editorial policy that includes a more rigorous article selection process, editorial review process, and its wholesome values orientation.
Each effort to establish a system of knowledge proceeds from a "worldview," a philosophical, perhaps metaphysical, foundation that informs decisions regarding acquisition, organization, and presentation of knowledge. Diderot and the encyclopaedists (in the 18th Century) established the first encyclopedias from the philosophical perspective of the Enlightenment. More recently (after 1911) a certain scientism influenced encyclopedias, resulting in the current tendency to attempt value-neutral presentations of facts and information.
This project transcends the metaphysical assumptions of both the Enlightenment and Modern Encyclopedias.
The originator of this project is Sun Myung Moon.
NWE editors and contributors promote the ideal of joy and universal happiness through the realization of human responsibility toward self-creation, constructive human relations, and the protection and enhancement of nature and the environment in life and practice. These universal values and ideals are inherent in the great religions, philosophies, and teachings of conscience.
This encyclopedia project aims to organize and present human knowledge in ways consistent with our natural purposes. Information and knowledge is intended to support the realization of a peaceful, healthy, and fulfilled life for all people.
See: Video Interview of Dr. Gordon L. Anderson about the New World Encyclopedia on UpTV.