Ramanuja
1017-1137 · Hindu Darshanas · Known
Ramanuja was an Indian philosopher who taught qualified nondualism, Viśiṣṭādvaita, which keeps God, souls and matter distinct inside one whole. Souls and matter are God's own body, related to Vishnu the way your limbs relate to you: real, distinct, never standing alone. Liberation is loving union with a personal God, where you stay a self who can love him instead of dissolving into him.
Signature
The position Ramanuja is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Nature of Reality
- leans Unity
- Theology
- Panentheism
Positions on the 8 axes the sources answer
- Society
- mildly leans Collectivism (31 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- The Divine
- leans Describable (13 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Identity
- leans Unchanging (25 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- leans Inherent (75 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Unity (25 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Truth
- leans Objective (75 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Nature
- leans Harmony (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Conviction
- leans Certain (75 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
12 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Ramanuja 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? - Good and Evil
- Moral Realism
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - Perception
- Direct Realism
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Grounded in God / Tradition / Testimony
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Divine Command
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Synergism / Libertarian Free Will
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Emanation
What is the origin of reality? - Language
- Logos
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Law
- Divine Law
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Role of Emotion
- Path to the Divine
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?