 In “The Basis of Realism” (1914), Alexander rejects idealism in favour of realism. He writes that the “temper” of realism is to de-anthropomorphise: to put man and mind in their proper places in the world of things. Whilst mind is properly understood as part of nature, this does not diminish its value (Alexander 1914: 279–80). For Alexander, realism is thus naturalistic. This paper is an expansion of Alexander’s less rigorous (1909–10), where he compares the new conception of mind as a mere part of the universe—as opposed to being at the centre of the universe—to the move from geocentrism to heliocentrism.