Mohandas K. Gandhi
1869–1948 · Modern Indian Thought · Household name
Gandhi led India's independence struggle with a method he called satyagraha, holding to truth: break an unjust law, take the punishment for it, never hit back. Under it sat ahimsa, doing no harm, and satya, truth. Truth was also his name for God, and he honoured every religion. Means and ends are one thing, so a good end reached by foul means stops being that end. He wanted villages ruling themselves and a life of plain discipline.
Signature
The position Gandhi is most identified with in the Profiler:
- War
- strongly leans Pacifism
- Ethics Basis
- Natural Law
Positions on the 14 axes the sources answer
- The Divine
- mildly leans Indescribable (62 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Identity
- strongly leans Unchanging (0 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- strongly leans Inherent (100 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- leans Horizontal (81 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Nature of Reality
- strongly leans Unity (4 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- leans Transcendence (70 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- leans Objective (75 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Opposition
- strongly leans Concurrence (100 on a 0–100 scale from Sublation to Concurrence)
- Nature
- strongly leans Harmony (100 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Ethics
- strongly leans Means (94 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- War
- strongly leans Pacifism (3 on a 0–100 scale from Pacifism to Militarism)
- Ignorance
- leans Bondage (25 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Conviction
- mildly leans Uncertain (38 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
- Allegiance
- mildly between Local and Global (58 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
6 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Gandhi 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? - Government
- Anarchy / Communal Order
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Union with God
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Good Real, Evil Privative
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Final Liberation
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Knowledge
- Intuition
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Natural Law
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Karmic Causation
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Economy
- Subsistence Economy
What is the ideal organization of economic life? - Authority
- Self-Sovereignty
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Law
- Natural Law
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Death
- Reincarnation
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Path to the Divine
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Innate Good
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- The Divine / All Beings
What is your primary bond and loyalty?