Ernst Haeckel
1834–1919 · Secular Thought · Known
Haeckel was a German zoologist who did more than anyone to spread Darwin's work in his country, then built a doctrine on it he called Monism. Matter and force are one eternal substance, and mind is one of its faces, so Spinoza's God-in-all-things comes back with evolution behind it. Spirit and matter never come apart, and God is another name for nature. He counted free will and life after death as illusions.
Signature
The position Haeckel is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Nature of Reality
- strongly leans Unity
- Theology
- Pantheism
Positions on the 15 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- leans Mechanistic (22 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- leans Collectivism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Mind
- leans Brain Only (18 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- The Divine
- mildly leans Describable (36 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Beauty
- leans Objective (75 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Meaning
- leans Constructed (25 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- leans Vertical (25 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Nature of Reality
- strongly leans Unity (6 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- strongly leans Immanence (0 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- leans Objective (81 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Nature
- leans Harmony (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Polity
- leans Illiberalism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- Ethics
- leans Ends (25 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- War
- leans Militarism (81 on a 0–100 scale from Pacifism to Militarism)
- Allegiance
- leans Local (25 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
5 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Haeckel refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Pantheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Epistocracy
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Knowledge / Beauty
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Natural Emergence
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Eternal Return
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Knowledge
- Sense Experience / Naturalism
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Other
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Hard Determinism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Eternal Cosmos
What is the origin of reality? - Economy
- Market Capitalism
What is the ideal organization of economic life? - Authority
- Rational Expertise
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Death
- Annihilation
What happens at death? - Human Nature
- Evolved Animal
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Nation
What is your primary bond and loyalty?