Helpful Worldview Chart

This chart was introduced in a philosophy class I took last year. I have found it to be a very useful tool to understand worldview from this particular perspective. It has also served as a way to help me evaluate the differences between Buddhist and Christian worldviews.
A colleague noticed it is very Western and does not leave much room for "phenomenology" but after a long discussion about what exactly phenomenology is and how it could fit in this chart, we decided we weren't sure where it would go.
So, although there are many models and ideas about worldviews, this is one I found particularly helpful.

I will include some excerpts from a book by Clement Vidal (The Beginning and the End: The Meaning of Life in a Cosmological Perspective) that helps explain this model.

Philosophical Discipline
1. What is?
Ontology (model of reality as a whole)
2. Where does it all come from?
Explanation (model of the past)
3. Where are we going?
Prediction (model of the future)
4. What is good and what is evil?
Axiology (theory of values)
5. How should we act?
Praxeology (theory of actions)
6. What is true and what is false?
Epistemology (theory of knowledge)

1. What is? Ontology (model of reality as a whole)
The first question is the question of ontology; or a model of reality as a whole. It can be typified with the question "What is?". It encompasses questions like, What is the nature of our world? How is it structured and how does it function? Why is there something rather than nothing? etc.

2. Where does it all come from?
Explanation (model of the past) the second question explains the first component. Why is the world the way it is, and not different? What kind of global explanatory principles can we put forward? How did the Universe originate? Where does it all come from? The kind of explanation sought here is one in terms of antecedents. Answers to these questions should be able to explain how and why such or such phenomena arose.

3. Where are we going? Prediction (model of the future)
The third question is complementary to the second one. Instead of focusing on the past, it focuses on the future. Where are we going to? What will be the fate of life in the Universe? It is about futurology, because this component should give us possible futures, with more or less probable developments. But the fact that there remain uncertainties, i.e. that there is more than one outcome possible, leaves us with choices to make. Which alternative should we promote and which one should we avoid? For this, we need values.

4. What is good and what is evil? Axiology (theory of values)
This brings us to the fourth question. How do we evaluate global reality? What should we strive for? What is good and what is evil? What is the meaning of life? Axiology traditionally deals with those questions, including morality, ethics, and aesthetics. The component should give us a direction, a purpose, a set of goals to guide our actions.

5. How should we act? Praxeology (theory of actions)
The fifth question is about the theory of action, or praxeology. How should we act? What are the general principles according to which we should organise our actions? It would help us to implement plans of action, according to our values, in order to solve practical problems. It is often said that a philosophy is of no use because it is too far from reality, that it does not give any precise answer to concrete questions. This is often true and a praxeology correctly developed should fill this gap.

6. What is true and what is false? Epistemology (theory of knowledge)
The sixth question is about the theory of knowledge (epistemology). How are we to construct our image of this world in such a way that we can come up with answers to questions 1, 2 and 3? How can we acquire knowledge? The more abstract questions “what are the principles of valid inferences or demonstrations?”, “How can we characterize truth, deduction, existence, necessity, etc. ?” are main issues of logic and philosophy of logic. We can also relate to this component the problem of language; what language should we use for our purposes of knowledge acquisition, and what are its limitations?

There is in fact a seventh question, which is a meta-question, asking Where do we start in order to answer those questions? It invites us to seek for partial answers found in the history of ideas and civilizations, preferably being aware of their tradition of thought, and their more or less hidden assumptions. This step is important for example to build a world philosophy12. More generally, philosophical anthropology and history of philosophy operate at this meta-level, allowing a broader analysis of the evolution of different worldviews.

(From The Beginning and the End: The Meaning of Life in a Cosmological Perspective by Clement Vidal)