Twelve Ways of Seeing the World

Twelve Ways of Seeing the World: Philosophies and Archetypal Worldviews for Understanding Human Consciousness

In Twelve Ways of Seeing the World, Mario Betti strives to make sense of the world through various lenses framed as twelve archetypes; Phenomonalism, Sensualism, Materialism, Mathematism, Rationalism, Idealism, Psychism, Pneumatism, Monadism, Dynamism, Realism, and Humanus. He draws on the research of Rudolf Steiner and his twelvefold typology of human and cosmic thought to explore and validate each worldview from its own unique perspective. In this way he intends to transform dogmatism and enable deeper and more meaningful dialogues.

The book includes a study guide, “World View by World View,” comprising templates for lesson structures and questions for discussion gathered by the author and Kathelijne Drenth of the Cloverleaf Foundation in The Netherlands.

“…might well change your life as much as it did mine…empowers us to deal more constructively with the world. Framing one’s understanding of the world with the twelve worldviews is extraordinarily powerful, inspiring, and transformative.” -from the introduction

About the Author

Mario Betti was born in Lucca, Italy in 1942.  As a young man, he loved the decathlon and  wanted to learn ten languages so as to understand people. Teaching philosophy at Alanus University in Germany, he enabled students explore the twelve world views.

Matthew T. Segall, PhD, received his doctoral degree in 2016 from the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at CIIS. His dissertation was titled Cosmotheanthropic Imagination in the Post-Kantian Process Philosophy of Schelling and Whitehead. It grapples with the limits to knowledge of reality imposed by Kant’s transcendental form of philosophy and argues that Schelling and Whitehead’s process-oriented approach (described in his dissertation as a “descendental” form of philosophy) shows the way across the Kantian threshold to renewed experiential contact with reality. He teaches courses on German Idealism and process philosophy for the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at CIIS.

Robert McDermott, Ph.D., is president emeritus and chair of the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). His publications include Radhakrishnan (1970); The Essential Aurobindo (1974, 1987); The Essential Steiner (1984); (with Rudolf Steiner) The Bhagavad Gita and the West (2009); and The New Essential Steiner (2009). He has also published on William James, Josiah Royce, M. K. Gandhi, the evolution of consciousness, and American thought. His administrative service includes president of the New York Center for Anthroposophy; president of the Rudolf Steiner [summer] Institute; chair of the board of Sunbridge College (New York) and of Rudolf Steiner College (California). He was a member of the council of the Anthroposophical Society in America (1996–2004). He is the founding chair of the board of the Sophia Project, an anthroposophic home in Oakland, California, for mothers and children at risk of homelessness. He is a Lindisfarne fellow, a Fetzer mentor, and a member of the Esalen Corportion.