A Representation of Competing Worldviews

	Mainly about matter; Mechanistic		Mainly about mind and spirit		Mind-matter integration
	Dualist.	Materialist	Idealist	Social constructionist	Panpsychic	Participatory
Ontology	Mind and matter are real, but distinct entities, neither of which is reducible to the other.	All is matter. Mind is an emergent epi-phenomenon, or non-existent (materialism can be seen as a truncated dualism with mind lopped off)	All is ultimately pure consciousness or spirit. What we call the natural world is either an illusion or in the end reducible to mind	Reality is a social construction mediated by language and shaped by social, political, cultural, economic, ethnic and gender values crystallized over time. "There is nothing outside the text"	Consciousness and matter arise together and are inseparable. Reality is self-organizing, emergent, complex, evolutionary, systemic	Subjective-objective: human self both autonomous and embedded in participatory relationship with the given primordial reality, in which the mind/body actively participates
Epistemology	Objectivist/realist: Findings ‘true; meaning repeatable, verifiable, quantifiable. Knowledge accumulates over time, approaching ‘Truth’.		Universal or Absolute Mind, knows all things directly. Lesser minds, know through participation in Absolute Mind	Knowledge is transactional, subjectivist, politically determined. Deconstruction of grand narratives	Knowing resides not only in human minds, but in a wider ecology of mind.	Knowing through active participation. We know our world as we act within it with critical subjectivity. Extended epistemology
Methodology	Methodology of objectivity: separating subject and object: experimental, manipulative		Intuition, revelation, mysticism, mindfulness disciplines, esoteric methodologies	Various forms of dialogical, transactional, qualitative, linguistic inquiry. Inquiry recognized as partial, politically determined	Sympathetic and compassionate inquiry, awareness of subtle sensitivities, holistic approaches	Co-operative forms of action inquiry; community of inquiry within community of practice
Axiology	Propositional knowledge about the world is an end in itself, intrinsically valuable. Knowledge is value free.		Primary values are those of spirit and mind: contemplation, unity, dissolution of ego, overcoming the illusion of a separate world.	Propositional, transactional knowledge is instrumentally valuable as a means to social emancipation	Universal sympathy and compassion for all beings. All things have intrinsic value, right to existence and full self-realization. Ecological awareness. Cosmos as sanctuary.	Practical knowing how to foster human and ecological flourishing is the primary value, supported by propositional, experiential and other forms of knowing
Major philosophical problem	If mind and matter are ontologically separate how can they interact at all?	How can subjective, conscious mind emerge from non-sentient matter?	If all is consciousness or social construction, how do we account for the universal, pragmatic, common sense supposition of reality?		Fundamentally opposed to the dominant mechanistic (dualist or materialist) perspective, and as such appears both mystical and functionally irrelevant. Must struggle for acceptability. Distinguished philosophical lineage unacknowledged and unrecognized
Major contribution to affairs	Hugely powerful methodology for understanding and manipulating the macroscopic world. The danger is that as a worldview it brings about a disenchanted and dead world		Draws attention to the contribution of consciousness, social relations power and politics, gender and race in constructing our world. Draws attention to the limits to our knowledge of the world. The danger is the "real" sensuous, embodied and more than human world disappears in a welter of social construction		Provides for a re-enchantment of the world and an honoring of the rights of the more than human. Challenges us to discover a new form of knowing and methodologies which honor the integration of mind-matter and politics with epistemology. The dangers lie in the huge demands of such methods.