William Blake
1757-1827 · Christian Mysticism · Prominent
A London engraver who published almost nothing and sold less, Blake called the Imagination the body of God itself, more than a faculty of the mind. God is a man and cannot be pictured otherwise; you know by seeing rather than by working it out; nothing exists outside thought. He attacked natural religion, Newton, Locke, penal law and the moral virtues alike as instruments of cruelty.
Signature
The position Blake is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Mind
- strongly leans Beyond Brain
- Perception
- Idealism
Positions on the 16 axes the sources answer
- Society
- leans Individualism (80 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Mind
- strongly leans Beyond Brain (100 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- The Divine
- leans Describable (15 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Beauty
- leans Objective (88 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Identity
- strongly leans Unchanging (0 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- strongly leans Inherent (92 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- mildly between Vertical and Horizontal (55 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Unity (25 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- strongly leans Transcendence (100 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- strongly leans Objective (92 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Polity
- leans Liberalism (87 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- Ethics
- leans Means (81 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- War
- leans Pacifism (13 on a 0–100 scale from Pacifism to Militarism)
- Ignorance
- leans Bondage (25 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Conviction
- strongly leans Certain (100 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
- Allegiance
- leans Global (81 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
4 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Blake refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Panentheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Highest Good
- Other
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Good Real, Evil Privative
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Apocalyptic Renewal
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Perception
- Idealism
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Intuition
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Other
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Synergism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Time
- Eternal Present
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Economy
- Stateless Communism
What is the ideal organization of economic life? - Authority
- Prophetic
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Death
- Unconditional Salvation
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Aesthetic Necessity
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Imago Dei
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- The Divine
What is your primary bond and loyalty?