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Friedrich Feuerbach

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Friedrich Heinrich Feuerbach (1806-1880) was a German philologist and philosopher. In the 1840s he played an important role disseminating materialist and atheist philosophy.

Leben

Friedrich Feuerbach was born on September 29, 1806, in Landshut. He was the youngest son of the distinguised jurist Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach (1775-1833) and uncle of painter Anselm Feuerbach (1829-1880). His older brothers were all distinguished scholars.[1] He studied philology and philosophy, specializing in Sanskrit literature. However, under the influence of his brother Ludwig, he turned to philosophy. He belonged to the Young Hegelians and wrote a number of books and articles, expounding a critique of religion that was heavily indebted to his brother's. He professed "to preach what he taught."[2] Friedrich Feuerbach lived mostly in Nuremberg, where his brother Ludwig stayed with him for awhile. Friedrich Feurbach died in Nuremberg on January 24, 1880.

Ansichten

Friedrich Feuerbach shared his brother Ludwig's materialistic humanism. However, he focused less on his brother's theories of the origin of religious alienation and more on the practical implications of religion. Religion requires of the believer "a perpetual sacrifice of his autonomous thinking."[3] The desire for happiness is the most powerful human drive, but it can be fulfilled only if (a) human beings know their essential nature (Wesen) and (b) they love it. Christianity interferes with the first by replacing science with superstition; it hinders the second by portraying human beings as hopelessly weak and dependent on the will of an almighty God.[4] It is the task of the State, through education and enlightened laws, to provide the material conditions of happiness. To do this, the State must emancipate itself from the influence of the Church. Although Church and State seem symbiotic, the priesthood merely a spiritual police force to complement the secular, in essence Church and State are in conflict: The essence and instrument of the State is the law, but the Church demands of believers obedience to the absolute will of God. As law is in conflict with arbitrary will, so the role of citizen is in conflict with that of believer. So the State must become secular, although Feuerbach acknowledges it will be difficult to remove religion from the minds of the people.[5]

Quotes

"No salvation outside of humanity! These words contain the whole of the religion of the future."[6]

"Love of humanity … belongs undeniably to the consitions of human welfare; but if it consists in mutual assistance in the striving for happiness and wellbeing, and if this happiness and wellbeing consist above all – as is likewise undeniable – in the satisfaction of our inborn natural drives and the development of our natural powers … [then] the most fertile soil for love of humanity will evidently not be the belief that human nature is thoroughly degenerate and worthless, but rather in the view according to which we regard it [viz., human nature] as the essentially and generally acceptable foundation and condition of all our being, feeling, thinking and striving…" [7]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Friedrich Feuerbach.


Works

  • Theanthropos, eine Reihe von Aphorismen (Theanthropos, a Series of Aphorisms). Zurich, 1838.
  • Die Religion der Zukunft, Erstes Heft (The Religion of the Future, First Pamphlet). Zurich, 1843.
  • Die Religion der Zukunft, 2. Heft: Die Bestimmung des Menschen. (The Religion of the Future, Second Pamphlet: The Vocation of Man). Nuremberg, 1844.
  • Die Religion der Zukunft, 3. Heft: Mensch oder Christ? (The Religion of the Future, Third Pamphlet: Human or Christian?). Nuremberg, 1845.
  • Die Kirche der Zukunft (The Church of the Future). Bern, 1847.
  • Gedanken und Tatsachen (Thoughts and Facts). Hamburg, 1862.

Sources

Meyers Konversations-Lexikon. 4th edition, vol. 6, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig, 1885–1892, p. 203. Online at: http://www.retrobibliothek.de/retrobib/seite.html?id=105645.

Schuffenhauer, W. (ed), 'Ludwig Feuerbach stellt des Bruders Schrift "Gedanken und Thatsachen", 1862, vor.' ('Ludwig Feuerbach introduces his brother's work Thoughts and Facts, 1862.' In: Braun, H.J., H.M. Sass, W. Schuffenhauer and F. Tomasoni (ed's), Ludwig Feuerbach und die Philosophie der Zukunft. Berlin 1990, pp. 763-785.
Online at: http://www.ludwig-feuerbach.de/lf_frf.htm.


Notes

  1. ^
    • Joseph Anselm Feuerbach (1798–1851), father of the painter, was a philologist and archeologist;
    • Karl Wilhelm Feuerbach (1800–1834) was a noted mathematician;
    • Eduard August Feuerbach (1803–1843) was a scholar of jurisprudence;
    • Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (1804–1872) was a philosopher and anthropologist who influenced Karl Marx.
    Friedrich also had three sisters: Rebekka Magdalena "Helene" Feuerbach von Dobeneck (1808–1891), Leonore Feuerbach (1809–1885), Elise Feuerbach (1813–1883).
    Cf. Meyers Konversations-Lexikon. 4th edition, vol. 6, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig, 1885–1892.
  2. ^ Meyers... op. cit., p. 203.
  3. ^ Cp. Feuerbach, F., Die Religion der Zukunft. Zurich, 1843, pp. 2-5.
  4. ^ Ibid, p. 7 ff. et passim.
  5. ^ Cp. op. cit., pp. 33-38 et passim.
  6. ^ Cp. Feuerbach, F., Die Religion der Zukunft. Zurich, 1843, p. 33.
  7. ^ Feuerbach, F., Gedanken und Tatsachen. Nuremberg, 1863, p. 4. Tr. V.I. Chastra.
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