Ludwig Feuerbach

Ludwig Feuerbach a German philosopher and anthropologist of religion (1804-1872), a leading figure of the Young Hegelians, whose book The Essence of Christianity argued that the idea of God is a projection of human nature and that theology is in truth a disguised anthropology, and who influenced the later critique of religion and the development of materialism.

Life and Studies

Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach was born in Landshut in Bavaria on 28 July 1804, the son of the distinguished jurist Paul Johann Anselm von Feuerbach, and he grew up in a household of learning and of liberal opinion. He studied theology at Heidelberg and then philosophy at Berlin, where he attended the lectures of Hegel and was deeply impressed by his system, and he took his doctorate at Erlangen and began an academic career as a lecturer at that university, hopeful of rising in the academic world. His early books on the history of modern philosophy and on the philosophy of the rationalists showed the influence of Hegel, but he soon moved toward a critical and independent position of his own.

His early books on the history of modern philosophy and on the philosophy of the rationalists showed the influence of Hegel, but he soon moved toward a critical and independent position. His anonymous work Thoughts on Death and Immortality, which denied personal immortality and identified the life of the spirit with the life of the species, cost him his hopes of a university chair, and after the failure of his candidacy at Erlangen he withdrew from academic life altogether and settled into a long retirement.

The Essence of Christianity

Feuerbach's most important book, The Essence of Christianity, appeared in 1841 and made his reputation. Its central argument is that religion is the relation of man to himself, but to himself as an object, so that the attributes ascribed to God are in fact the attributes of the human species projected upon an imaginary being. God is the outward projection of man's inner nature, and theology is a mystified form of anthropology, the study of humanity in an alienated and fantastic form. He held that the powers which the believer ascribes to a heavenly father and a saviour are the idealised powers of human reason, love and will, separated from the individuals who possess them.

He held that the powers which the religious believer ascribes to a heavenly father, to a judge and to a saviour are the idealised powers of human reason, love and will, separated from the individuals who possess them and set up as a separate and superior being. In worshipping God, man unconsciously worships the highest qualities of his own nature, and the more he exalts the divine, the more he impoverishes himself and the less able he becomes to realise those qualities in his own life and in his relations with others.

Materialism and the Philosophy of the Future

In his later writings Feuerbach moved from a critique of religion toward a philosophy grounded in nature and the senses. He denied the existence of a disembodied spirit or an abstract absolute, and he taught that thought arises from the body and the senses and cannot exist apart from the natural world. Man is a part of nature, and philosophy must begin from the natural and sensible existence of human beings rather than from the abstractions of the idealist systems that had dominated German thought.

In his Provisional Theses for the Reform of Philosophy and his Principles of the Philosophy of the Future he set out the programme of a new philosophy that would replace the abstract speculation of the idealists with an insistence upon the concrete, the sensuous and the human. Truth, he held, is not the property of the solitary thinker but is reached through the relation of one person to another and through the community of human beings, and it is tested in the intercourse of life rather than in the silence of the study.

Influence and Controversy

Feuerbach's book provoked intense controversy and was banned in various parts of Germany, and it was celebrated by radical thinkers at the same time that it was condemned by orthodox theologians. It defined the position of the left wing of the Hegelian school and became a rallying point for those who sought to interpret religion in human terms, and its argument that religion is a human creation rather than a divine revelation passed into the common possession of the critical thought of the mid-nineteenth century.

Its influence upon Karl Marx was decisive. Marx welcomed Feuerbach's overthrow of the religious illusion but argued that he had not gone far enough, since the criticism of religion must be completed by the criticism of the social and economic conditions that produce it. The famous theses on Feuerbach, in which Marx criticised his predecessor for remaining a contemplative materialist who interpreted the world without changing it, mark a turning point in the development of historical materialism. Feuerbach's thought also influenced the theology that followed him, provoking both the humanistic reinterpretations of religion in liberal theology and the more radical denials of supernatural belief.

Later Years and Legacy

Feuerbach's later years were marked by financial difficulty, for the Bruckberg porcelain works failed and the family was forced to move to Rechenberg in 1860, where he lived in reduced circumstances. He continued to write on ethics, on the philosophy of religion and on the relation of science to theology, and he maintained a correspondence with leading thinkers of his day. He suffered a stroke in 1870 and died at Rechenberg on 13 September 1872, attended by his wife and a few friends. His reputation declined after his death, as the currents he had helped to set in motion moved beyond his formulations, yet he remained a reference point for later critics of religion.

He is remembered as the thinker who carried the critical spirit of the Hegelian school into the analysis of religion and who helped to turn philosophy away from the abstract absolute toward nature and humanity. His argument that theology is a hidden anthropology, and his vision of a philosophy that serves human welfare rather than metaphysical speculation, have given him a permanent place in the intellectual history of the modern world and an enduring influence upon later criticism of religion. His challenge, that the attributes of God are the attributes of humanity writ large, remains a central question for any reflective consideration of religious faith.

See also

• Young Hegelians
• The Essence of Christianity
• Criticism of religion
• Anthropological materialism