J.M.E. McTaggart
1866–1925 · German Idealism · Prominent
McTaggart was a Cambridge idealist who argued in 1908 that time is unreal: every event has to be past, present and future in turn, and nothing can be all three at once. What is real is a timeless society of souls bound to one another by love. He was an atheist who believed in personal immortality. He left philosophers two orderings of time, one that flows past you, one that fixes what came earlier than what.
Signature
The position McTaggart is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Identity
- strongly leans Unchanging
- Time
- Eternal Present
Positions on the 13 axes the sources answer
- Society
- mildly leans Individualism (62 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 (18 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Universals
- mildly leans Realism (35 on a 0–100 scale from Realism to Nominalism)
- Identity
- strongly leans Unchanging (0 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- leans Inherent (78 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Nature of Reality
- mildly between Unity and Multiplicity (53 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- strongly leans Transcendence (91 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- strongly leans Objective (97 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Opposition
- leans Concurrence (79 on a 0–100 scale from Sublation to Concurrence)
- Ethics
- mildly leans Ends (35 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- Ignorance
- leans Bondage (25 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Conviction
- mildly between Uncertain and Certain (41 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
7 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or McTaggart refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Atheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Highest Good
- Love
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Moral Realism
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Final Liberation
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Knowledge
- Pure Reason
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Non-Utilitarian Consequentialism
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Compatibilism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Eternal Cosmos
What is the origin of reality? - Time
- Eternal Present
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Authority
- Self-Sovereignty
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Paradox
- Paradox as Error
What is the status of paradox? - 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
- Beloved / Friends
What is your primary bond and loyalty?