Alan Watts
1915–1973 · Esotericism · Renowned
Watts was born in Britain, left the Episcopal priesthood in America, and spent the rest of his life explaining Zen, Taoism and Vedanta to Western readers. The separate self is a social convention, he taught, a role you were handed and then mistook for a thing. What you are is the whole universe peeking at itself through one pair of eyes. He said a life is meant to be lived the way a piece of music is played.
Signature
The position Watts is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Nature of Reality
- strongly leans Unity
- Theology
- Panentheism
Positions on the 18 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- leans Purposeful (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- mildly between Collectivism and Individualism (46 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Mind
- strongly leans Beyond Brain (93 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- The Divine
- leans Indescribable (84 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Identity
- mildly leans Changing (62 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- mildly leans Constructed (39 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- leans Horizontal (75 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Nature of Reality
- strongly leans Unity (3 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- mildly leans Immanence (34 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- mildly between Subjective and Objective (60 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Opposition
- leans Concurrence (89 on a 0–100 scale from Sublation to Concurrence)
- Nature
- strongly leans Harmony (97 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Polity
- leans Liberalism (75 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- Ethics
- mildly between Ends and Means (50 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- War
- leans Pacifism (21 on a 0–100 scale from Pacifism to Militarism)
- Ignorance
- mildly leans Bliss (65 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Conviction
- leans Uncertain (11 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
- Allegiance
- leans Global (75 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
2 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Watts 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
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Union with God / Harmony
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Divine Drama / No Real Distinction
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Eternal Return
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Perception
- Non-Dual Awareness / Gestalt Perception
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Intuition
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Relational
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Non-Self
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Cyclical Recurrence
What is the origin of reality? - Time
- Eternal Present / Cyclical Return
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Authority
- Self-Sovereignty
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Conventional / Metaphorical
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Paradox
- Coincidentia Oppositorum
What is the status of paradox? - Death
- Union with the One / Reincarnation
What happens at death? - Human Nature
- No-Self / Socially Constructed
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- All Beings
What is your primary bond and loyalty?