Each paragraph offers a particular viewpoint based on a distinct perspective. Your task is to read each one closely and identify which worldview it expresses. Pay attention to what it values, how it sees reality, and what it dismisses. Let the underlying assumptions guide your recognition. Answers below.
Twelve Worldviews
Materialism
Spiritism
Realism
Idealism
Mathematism
Rationalism
Psychism
Pneumatism
Monadism
Dynamism
Phenomenalism
Sensationalism
What Is Reality?
Viewpoint 1
Reality is what resists. What you can touch, measure, break, build. The stone that bruises your foot, the hunger that won’t go away, the work that tires your muscles — that’s real. Thoughts and dreams might feel important, but unless they change the physical world, they’re just passing noise. If it can’t be weighed or built from matter, it doesn’t belong in the discussion of what’s real.
Viewpoint 2
Reality is sensation. The way sunlight warms your skin, the way music vibrates through your chest — that’s what’s undeniable. Strip away concepts, beliefs, theories, and you’re left with color, sound, taste, touch. You know reality not because you think it — but because you feel it. Everything else may be constructed. But sensation? That’s the first and final certainty.
Viewpoint 3
Reality is what’s in front of you — no more, no less. The world as it appears, as it behaves, as it consistently shows itself — that’s reality. Speculation can be interesting, but unless it corresponds to what we actually observe and interact with, it’s not helpful. Reality isn’t mystical. It’s the ground you walk on, the people you meet, the way things actually are.
Viewpoint 4
Reality begins not in objects, but in minds. The world is alive with meaning because beings give it meaning. A landscape, a law, a piece of music — they’re real not just because they exist, but because someone perceives and feels them. Consciousness is not an afterthought of matter; it is the space where the world truly appears. No inner being, no outer reality.
Viewpoint 5
Reality is plural — a symphony of centers. Each individual carries a truth, a window into existence. There’s no single surface we all share — only intersecting expressions of countless inner worlds. What’s real is what each self perceives and unfolds from within. To know reality, don’t look outward. Look deeper into the being who stands before you, and deeper still into yourself.
Viewpoint 6
Reality is appearance — not fiction, not illusion, but what arises in experience. What you see, hear, feel — not as things-in-themselves, but as they present themselves to you — that is reality. We can never step outside our own perception. We only have access to what shows itself. Reality is not beyond the veil — it is the veil, and our encounter with it.
Viewpoint 7
Reality is not just known — it acts. It wills, it moves, it breathes through human history. Behind every event is the pressure of intention. We’re not watching a machine unfold — we’re walking inside a vast, unfolding purpose. Spirit is not separate from the world; it drives the world. The more awake you are to that inner current, the more real life becomes.
Viewpoint 8
Reality is force — not just what is, but what acts. Everything that exists is shaped by invisible pressures: desire, gravity, instinct, resistance. Stillness is illusion. Underneath every object is motion, behind every state is a drive. You feel reality most when something moves you, or when you push back. Energy, not appearance, reveals what is truly there.
Viewpoint 9
Reality is that which can be thought clearly and consistently. Emotions distort, senses deceive — but reason, when rightly used, leads to reliable knowledge. We call real that which withstands rational examination. If a claim can’t be explained, tested, or understood through clear concepts, it belongs to opinion, not reality. Truth is what holds up under scrutiny — that’s the only firm ground we have.
Viewpoint 10
Reality is not just what is — it’s what ought to be. The world has meaning only if we recognize it as shaped by ideas, purposes, inner laws. What we perceive is only a fragment. Behind it stands the ideal — beauty, truth, justice — the invisible architecture. We must learn to see not just facts, but significance. Reality without meaning is not real at all.
Viewpoint 11
Reality is not the world you see, but the one behind it — the source. Every form, every event, is a veil over something deeper. The physical is only a garment the Spirit wears to be seen. To call only the outer real is to live in illusion. The true world is known inwardly, in moments when the soul remembers where it came from.
Viewpoint 12
Reality is order. At its core, the world follows principles so precise they can be calculated. Whether it’s the stars above or the atoms beneath, everything follows patterns, quantities, and laws. What you see is the surface. What’s real is the structure behind it — the equations that never lie. Understanding reality means decoding the system. And systems, if they’re real, are always mathematically sound.
Answers
1. Materialism
11. Spiritism
3. Realism
10. Idealism
12. Mathematism
9. Rationalism
4. Psychism
7. Pneumatism
5. Monadism
8. Dynamism
6. Phenomenalism
2. Sensationalism
