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BAADER, FRANZ XAVER VON (1765–1841)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 88 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BAADER, See also:FRANZ XAVER VON (1765–1841) , See also:German philosopher and theologian, See also:born on the 27th of See also:March 1765 at See also:Munich, was the third son of F. P. Baader, See also:court physician to the elector of See also:Bavaria. His See also:brothers were both distinguished—the See also:elder, Clemens, as an author; the second, See also:Joseph (1763–1835), as an engineer. Franz studied See also:medicine at See also:Ingolstadt and See also:Vienna, and for a See also:short See also:time assisted his See also:father in his practice. This See also:life he soon found uncongenial, and decided on becoming a See also:mining engineer. He studied under See also:Abraham Gottlob See also:Werner at See also:Freiberg, travelled through several of the mining districts in See also:north See also:Germany, and for four years, 1792–1796, resided inand recommends the study of See also:Boehme. In 1826, when the new university was opened at Munich, he was appointed See also:professor of See also:philosophy and speculative See also:theology. Some of the lectures delivered there he published under the See also:title, Spekulative Dogmatik, 4 parts, 1827–1836. In 1838 he opposed the interference in See also:civil matters of the See also:Roman See also:Catholic See also:Church, to which he belonged, and in consequence was, during the last three years of his life, interdicted from lecturing on the philosophy of See also:religion. He died on the 23rd of May 1841. It is difficult to summarize Baader's philosophy, for he himself generally gave expression to his deepest thoughts in obscure aphorisms, or mystical symbols and analogies (see Ed.

See also:

Zeller's Ges. d. dent. Phil. 732, 736). Further, he has no systematic See also:works; his doctrines exist for the most See also:part in short detached essays, in comments on the writings of Boehme and See also:Saint See also:Martin, or in his extensive See also:correspondence and See also:journals. At the same time there are salient points which See also:mark the outline of his thought. Baader starts from the position that human See also:reason by itself can never reach the end it aims at, and maintains that we cannot throw aside the presuppositions of faith, church and tradition. His point of view may be described as See also:Scholasticism; for, like the scholastic doctors, he believes that theology and philosophy are not opposed sciences, but that reason has to make clear the truths given by authority and See also:revelation. But in his See also:attempt to draw still closer the realms of faith and knowledge he approaches more nearly to the See also:mysticism of See also:Eckhart, See also:Paracelsus and Boehme. Our existence depends on the fact that we are cognized by See also:God (cogitor ergo cogito et sum). All self-consciousness is at the same time God-consciousness; our knows ledge is never See also:mere scientia, it is invariably See also:con-scientia—a knowing with, consciousness of, or participation in God. Baader's philosophy is thus essentially a See also:theosophy.' God is not to be conceived as mere abstract Being (substantia), but as See also:everlasting See also:process, activity (actus). Of this process, this self-See also:generation of God, we may distinguish two aspects—the immanent or See also:esoteric, and the emanent or exoteric.

God has reality only in so far as He is See also:

absolute spirit, and only in so far as the See also:primitive will is conscious of itself can it become spirit at all. But in this very See also:cognition of self is involved the distinction of knower and known, from which proceeds the See also:power to become spirit. This immanent process of self-consciousness, wherein indeed a trinity of persons is not given but only rendered possible, is mirrored in, and takes See also:place through, the eternal and impersonal See also:idea or See also:wisdom of God, which exists beside, though not distinct from, the primitive will. See also:Concrete reality or See also:personality is given to this divine Ternar, as Baader calls it, through nature, the principle of self-See also:hood, of individual being, which is eternally and necessarily produced by God. Only in nature is the trinity of persons attained. These processes, it must be noticed, are not to be conceived as successive, or as taking place in time; they are to be looked at sub specie aeternitatis, as the necessary elements or moments in the self-See also:evolution of the divine Being. Nor is nature to be confounded with created substance, or with See also:matter as it exists in space and time; it is pure non-being, the mere otherness (alteritas) of God—his See also:shadow, See also:desire, want, or desiderium sui, as it is called by mystical writers. Creation, itself a See also:free and non-temporal See also:act of God's love and will, cannot be speculatively deduced, but must be accepted as an historic fact. Created beings were originally of three orders—the intelligent or angels; the non-intelligent natural existences; and See also:man, who mediated between these two orders. Intelligent beings are endowed with freedom; it is possible, but not necessary, that they should fall. Hence the fact of the fall is not a speculative but an historic truth. The angels See also:fell through pride—through desire to raise them-selves to equality with God; man fell by lowering himself to the level of nature.

Only after the fall of man begins the creation of space, time and matter, or of the See also:

world as we now know it; and the See also:motive of this creation was the desire to afford man an opportunity for taking See also:advantage of the See also:scheme of redemption, for bringing forth in purity the See also:image of God according to which he has been fashioned. The See also:physical philosophy and See also:anthropology which Baader, in connexion with this, unfolds in various works, is but little instructive, and coincides in the See also:main with the utterances of Boehme. In nature and in man he finds traces of the dire effects of See also:sin, which has corrupted both and has destroyed their natural See also:harmony. As regards See also:ethics, Baader rejects the Kantian or any autonomic See also:system of morals. Not obedience to a moral See also:law, but realization in ourselves of the divine life is the true ethical end. But man has lost the power to effect this by himself; he has alienated himself from God, and therefore no ethical theory which neglects the facts of sin and redemption is satisfactory or even possible. The See also:history of man and of humanity is thehistory of the redeeming love of God. The means whereby we put ourselves so in relation with See also:Christ as to receive from Him his healing virtue are chiefly See also:prayer and the sacraments of the church ; mere works are never sufficient. Man in his social relations is under two See also:great institutions. One is temporal, natural and limited—the See also:state; the other is eternal, See also:cosmopolitan and universal—the church. In the state two things are requisite: first, See also:common submission to the ruler, which can be secured or given only when the state is See also:Christian, for God alone is the true ruler of men; and, secondly, inequality of See also:rank, without which there can be no organization. A despotism of mere power and liberalism, which naturally produces See also:socialism, are equally objectionable.

The ideal state is a civil community ruled by a universal or Catholic church, the principles of which are equally distinct from mere passive See also:

pietism, or faith which will know nothing, and from the See also:Protestant See also:doctrine, which is the very radicalism of reason. Baader is, without doubt, among the greatest speculative theologians of See also:modern Catholicism, and his See also:influence has extended itself even beyond the precincts of his own church. Among those whom he influenced were R. See also:Rothe, See also:Julius See also:Muller and Hans L. Markensen. His works were collected and published by a number of his adherents—F. Hoffman, J. Hamberger, E. v. Schaden, Lutterbeck, von Osten-Sacken and Schluter—Baader's sammtliche Werke (16 vols., 1851–186o). Valuable introductions by the editors are pre-fixed to the several volumes. Vol. xv. contains a full See also:biography; vol. xvi. an See also:index, and an able See also:sketch of the whole system by Lutterbeck. See F.

See also:

Hoffmann, Vorhalle zur spekulativen Lehre Baader's (1836); Grundziige der Societdts-Philosophie Franz Baader's (1837) ; Philosophische Schriften (3 vols., 1868–1872) ; See also:Die Weltalter (1868); Biographie and Brief See also:weasel (See also:Leipzig, 1887); J. Hamberger, Cardinalpunkte der Baaderschen Philosophie (1855); Fundamentalbegriffe von F. B.'s Ethik, Politik, u. Religions-Philosophie (1858); J. A. B. Lutterbeck, Philosophische Standpunkte Baaders (1854); Baaders Lehre vom Weltgebdude (1866). The most satisfactory surveys are those given by See also:Erdmann, Versuch einer Gesch. d. neuern Phil. iii. 2, pp. 583-636; J. Claassen, Franz von Baaders Leben and theosophische Werke (See also:Stuttgart, 1886-1887), and Franz von Baaders Gedanken fiber Staat and Gesellschaft (Giitersloh, 189o) ; See also:Otto See also:Pfleiderer, Philosophy of Religion (vol. ii., Eng. trans. 1887) ; R.

Falckenberg, History of Philosophy, pp. 472-475 (trans. A. C. See also:

Arm-strong, New See also:York, 1893) ; Reichel, Die Sozietdtsphilosophie Franz v. Baaders (See also:Tubingen, 1901); Kuno See also:Fischer, Zur hundertjdhrigen Geburtstagfeier Baaders (See also:Erlangen, 1865).

End of Article: BAADER, FRANZ XAVER VON (1765–1841)

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