The Worldview Timeline

How to read this. Scope: the Western intellectual tradition only (Mediterranean, European, and North American), not a global claim. Each point scores the era's dominant paradigm-setting figure or movement on a −50 (authority-based) to +50 (logic-based) scale, with 0 as Pragmatist. The plotted line is pulled toward each point's score by a weight derived from three factors — population reach, enforcement power, and duration — combined as their geometric mean. A brilliant, correct argument with no coercive institution behind it (a philosopher's book) pulls the line only slightly; a state-enforced law, war, or institution pulls it hard. This is why individual scientific and philosophical breakthroughs can carry a high score without much moving the era's dominant, lived worldview.