What Worldview Theme Playing Cards Do You Hold?

Choices We Make Playing Cards
version 5.0 worldview theme based

Your worldview reflects your beliefs, values, how your mind works, answers to life's big questions, how you fit into the bigger scheme of things, and how you find meaning in life. Project Worldview uses worldview themes to characterize worldviews. We have formally identified and designated 104 such instances where beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and behavior come together in a way that is expressed in similar fashion by lots of people. Each worldview theme has a formal name and a description of roughly 100 words that fits on one side of a card. For example: The A♦ Ace of Diamonds card has the "Evidence-Based" theme on one side, and the "Positive Expectations" theme on the other side.

Project Worldview sees people as
thinking, feeling, joining, and doing creatures.

Accordingly, our framework for global education splits the 104 worldview themes into four groups of twenty six,
with each group linked to the card's suit:
diamonds, hearts, clubs, and spades.
Paired themes create 52 choices on flip sides of cards.
The cards fit into four groups, with related cards labeled by suit according to this scheme:

"Thinking"

Understandings

About Knowledge

"Feeling"

Relationships: Interpersonal & Intrapersonal

"Joining"

Relationship to Groups,
Community & Society

"Doing"

Relationship to Nature

For a list (version 5.0) of the particular themes in each category, click on the links below:
the diamond worldview themes <==> thinking and the quest for knowledge	the heart worldview themes <==> feelings and human interaction	the club worldview themes <==> joining and the individual as part of society	the spade worldview themes <==> doing and impact on nature / the environment

Note: previously these groups have been described as
representing the four wings of The Reality Marketplace.

Metaphorically speaking,
your worldview answers the question:
In the game of life, what cards do you hold?

What Worldview Theme Playing Cards Do You Hold?

Your worldview—your comprehensive conception of the world as a whole—is unique, extraordinarily complicated, and thus difficult to characterize and get a handle on. While obviously providing only a first approximation, use of worldview theme cards provides a way of doing this. This project Worldview website provides complete descriptions of 104 worldview themes housed on fifty-two playing cards ( two related themes on flip sides offering a choice in the Choices We Make characterization of worldviews) Use of regularly sized playing cards limits information contained to a manageable amount, and helps one relate these worldview theme cards to playing a game.

In the game of life you constantly interact with people. The outcome of serious confrontations—constructive information exchange, compromise, dispute resolution, personal growth, or uncompromising standoffishness, fighting, relationship breakdown, fear—often critically depends on the participants’ worldviews and how well they understand and accept them. As in sitting down to play cards, the better idea you have of the cards each person holds-- the card choices he or she has made as related to beliefs, values, etc.-- the easier it will be to steer the game's outcome to your liking! Of course the starting point is understanding what your beliefs / values are, what choices you make, what cards you hold!

making your own playing cards

Note: All of the "intellectual property" (including analysis programs) and instructions you need to make and use the deck of cards described above to full educational advantage are available free of charge on this website. You will need to supply 1) the card stock, 2) the printer to print the double-sided cards and tuck box template, 3) scissors to cut big (8.5 x 11 in.) theme cards into smaller (2.5 x 3.25 in.) playing cards and cut-out the tuck box, and 4) either (0.5 in wide) double-sided tape or glue / glue sticks to assemble the playing cards tuck box.

DIY Production: In printing the cards, you will need to make sure that the card stock you buy and your printer / copier are compatible and that the two printed sides of a big theme card you produce line up perfectly so that when you card out the smaller cards the themes fit nicely centered on each side. It can be a bit of a challenge, but it's certainly doable! If you don't want to take on this printing the cards challenge, or prefer a bound booklet to loose cards, there is a Choices We Make booklet alternative.

Note: The Choices We Make booklet
sequentially presents the 52 cards
in booklet form and offers advantages
for certain applications.

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More:

The We are the Choices We Make essay
will give you a better idea
as to the content of these cards
and their educational value

Choices We Make Menu and Support page

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