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FEUERBACH, LUDWIG ANDREAS (1804—1872)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 303 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FEUERBACH, See also:LUDWIG ANDREAS (1804—1872) , See also:German philosopher, See also:fourth son of the eminent jurist (see below), was See also:born at See also:Landshut in See also:Bavaria on the 28th of See also:July 1804. He matriculated at See also:Heidelberg with the intention of pursuing an ecclesiastical career. Through the See also:influence of Prof. See also:Daub he was led to an See also:interest in the then predominant See also:philosophy of See also:Hegel and, in spite of his See also:father's opposition, went to See also:Berlin to study under. the See also:master himself. After two years' discipleship the Hegelian influence began to slacken. " See also:Theology," he wrote to a friend, " I can bring myself to study no more. I See also:long to take nature to my See also:heart, that nature before whose See also:depth the faint-hearted theologian shrinks back; and with nature See also:man, man in his entire quality." These words are a See also:key to Feuerbach's development. He completed his See also:education at See also:Erlangen with the study of natural See also:science. His first See also:book, published anonymously, Gedanken fiber See also:Tod and Unsterblichkeit (1830, 3rd ed. 1876), contains an attack upon See also:personal See also:immortality and an advocacy of the Spinozistic immortality of reabsorption in nature. These principles, combined with his embarrassed manner of public speaking, debarred him from See also:academic See also:advancement. After some years of struggling, during which he published his Geschichte der neueren Philosophie (2 vols., 1833—1837, 2nd ed.

1844), and Abalard and Heloise (1834, 3rd ed. 1877), he married in 1837 and lived a rural existence at Bruckberg near See also:

Nuremberg, supported by his wife's See also:share in a small See also:porcelain factory. In two See also:works of this See also:period, See also:Pierre See also:Bayle (1838) and Philosophie and Christentum (1839), which See also:deal largely with theology, he held that he had proved " that See also:Christianity has in fact long vanished not only from the See also:reason but from the See also:life of mankind, that it is nothing more than a fixed See also:idea " in flagrant contra-diction to the distinctive features of contemporary See also:civilization. This attack is followed up in his most important See also:work, Das Wesen See also:des Christentums (1841), which was translated into See also:English (The Essence of See also:Religion, by See also:George See also:Eliot, 1853, 2nd ed. 1881), See also:French and See also:Russian. Its aim may be described shortly as an effort to humanize theology. He See also:lays it down that man, so far as he is rational, is to himself his own See also:object of thought. Religion is consciousness of the See also:infinite. Religion therefore is " nothing else than the consciousness of the infinity of the consciousness; or, in the consciousness of the infinite, the conscious subject has for his object the infinity of his own nature." Thus See also:God is nothing else than man: he is, so to speak, the outward See also:projection of man's inward nature. In See also:part r of his book he develops what he calls the " true or anthropological essence of religion." •Treating of God in his various aspects " as a being of the understanding," " as a moral being or See also:law," " as love " and so on, Feuerbach shows that in every aspect God corresponds to some feature or need of human nature. " If man is to find contentment in God, he must find himself in God." In part 2 he discusses the " false or theological essence of religion," i.e. the view which regards God as having a See also:separate existence over against man. Hence arise various mistaken beliefs, such as the belief in See also:revelation which not only injures the moral sence, but also " poisons, See also:nay destroys, the divinest feeling in man, the sense of truth," and the belief in sacraments such as the See also:Lord's Supper, a piece of religious See also:materialism of which " the necessary consequences are superstition and immorality." In spite of many admirable qualities both of See also:style and See also:matter the Essence of Christianity has never made much impression upon See also:British thought.

To treat the actual forms of religion as expressions of our various human needs is a fruitful idea which deserves See also:

fuller development than it has yet received; but Feuerbach's treatment of it is fatally vitiated by his See also:subjectivism. Feuerbach denied that he was rightly called an atheist, but the denial is merely verbal: what he calls " See also:theism " is See also:atheism in the See also:ordinary sense. Feuerbach labours under the same difficulty as See also:Fichte; both thinkers strive in vain to reconcile the religious consciousness with subjectivism. During the troubles of 1848-1849 Feuerbach's attack upon orthodoxy made him something of a See also:hero with the revolutionary party; but he never threw himself into the See also:political See also:movement, and indeed had not the qualities of a popular See also:leader. During the period of the See also:diet of See also:Frankfort he had given public lectures on religion at Heidelberg. When the diet closed he withdrew to Bruckberg and occupied himself partly with scientific study, partly with the See also:composition of his Theogonie (1857). In 186o he was compelled by the failure of the porcelain factory to leave Bruckberg, and he would have suffered the extremity of want but for the assistance of See also:friends supplemented by a public subscription. His last book, Gottheit, Freiheit and Unsterblichkeit, appeared in 1866 (end ed., 1890). After a long period of decay he died on the 13th of See also:September 1872. Feuerbach's influence has been greatest upon the See also:anti-See also:Christian theologians such as D. F. See also:Strauss, the author of the Leben Jesu, and See also:Bruno See also:Bauer, who like Feuerbach himself had passed over from Hegelianism to a See also:form of See also:naturalism.

But many of his ideas were taken up by those who, like See also:

Arnold See also:Ruge, had entered into the struggle between See also:church and See also:state in See also:Germany, and those who, like F. Engels and Karl See also:Marx, were leaders in the revolt of labour against the See also:power of See also:capital. His work was too deliberately unsystematic ("keine Philosophic ist meine Philosophie ") ever to make him a power in philosophy. He expressed in an eager, disjointed, but condensed and laboured See also:fashion, certain deep-lying convictions—that philosophy must come back from unsubstantial See also:metaphysics to the solid facts of human nature and natural science, that the human See also:body was no less important than the human spirit (" Der Mensch ist was er isst ") and that Christianity was utterly out of See also:harmony with the See also:age. His convictions gained See also:weight from the simplicity, uprightness and See also:diligence of his See also:character; but they need a more effective See also:justification than he was able to give them. His works appeared in to vols. (See also:Leipzig, 1846-1866) ; his See also:correspondence has been edited with an indifferent See also:biography by Karl See also:Grun (1874). See A. See also:Levy, La Philosophic de Feuerbach (1904); M. See also:Meyer, L. Feuerbach's Moralphilosophie (Berlin, 1899) ; E. v. See also:Hartmann, Geschichte d.

See also:

Meta physik (Leipzig, 1899-1900), ii. 437-.144; F . Engels, L. Feuerbach and d. Ausgang d. class. See also:deutsch. Philos. (2nd ed., 1895). (H.

End of Article: FEUERBACH, LUDWIG ANDREAS (1804—1872)

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