Friedrich Heinrich Feuerbach (29 September 1806 – 24 January 1880) was a German
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
and philosopher. In the 1840s, he played an important role disseminating
materialist and
atheist philosophy.
Life
Friedrich Feuerbach was born on 29 September 1806 in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
. He was the youngest son of the distinguished jurist
Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach
Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach (14 November 177529 May 1833) was a German legal scholar. His major achievement was a reform of the Bavarian penal code which led to the abolition of torture and became a model for several other countries. ...
(1775–1833) and uncle of painter
Anselm Feuerbach
Anselm Feuerbach (12 September 1829 – 4 January 1880) was a German painter. He was the leading classicist painter of the German 19th-century school.
Biography
Early life
Feuerbach was born at Speyer, the son of the archaeologist Joseph ...
(1829–1880). His older brothers were all distinguished scholars.
In 1826, he began his studies at the university of Erlangen. At first he studied theology, then history, and finally philology and philosophy, specializing in Sanskrit literature. His supervisor was
Friedrich Rückert
Friedrich Rückert (16 May 1788 – 31 January 1866) was a German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages.
Biography
Rückert was born in Schweinfurt and was the eldest son of a lawyer. He was educated at the local '' Gymnasium'' ...
. At Erlangen, he was a member of a
liberal nationalist
Civic nationalism, also known as liberal nationalism, is a form of nationalism identified by political philosophers who believe in an inclusive form of nationalism that adheres to traditional liberal values of freedom, tolerance, equality, ind ...
student fraternity. In 1831, shortly after graduating, he went to Paris to work with the noted philologists and linguists
Chézy, Bournouf and Remusat. France had recently experienced the
July Revolution
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution (french: révolution de Juillet), Second French Revolution, or ("Three Glorious ays), was a second French Revolution after the first in 1789. It led to the overthrow of King ...
, and Friedrich met with some of the French
utopian socialists
Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often de ...
of the time (e.g.,
Pierre Leroux
Pierre Henri Leroux (7 April 1797 – 12 April 1871), was a French philosopher and political economist. He was born at Bercy, now a part of Paris, the son of an artisan.
Life
His education was interrupted by the death of his father, which co ...
). He also seems to have travelled to Switzerland, where he met the radical followers of
Wilhelm Weitling
Wilhelm Christian Weitling (October 5, 1808 – January 25, 1871) was a German tailor, inventor, radical political activist and one of the first theorists of communism. Weitling gained fame in Europe as a social theorist before he emigrated t ...
; some of them subsequently studied his writings on religion. There is no evidence, however, that Friedrich Feuerbach himself ever participated in any revolutionary association (nor would this have been in character with his diffident nature).
On his return to Germany, Feuerbach did not seek a profession but instead took rented rooms in
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
and lived on a small state pension. He lived that way for most of his life. Friedrich Feuerbach published several translations from Sanskrit, Spanish, Italian and French. In the 1830s, he was associated with the
Young German movement in literature; in the early 1840s, he contributed to a number of
Young Hegelian
The Young Hegelians (german: Junghegelianer), or Left Hegelians (''Linkshegelianer''), or the Hegelian Left (''die Hegelsche Linke''), were a group of German intellectuals who, in the decade or so after the death of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel ...
magazines. Freuerbach is described as extremely shy and withdrawn. His brother Ludwig described him as utterly undemanding. The suicide attempt of his older brother
Karl Karl may refer to:
People
* Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne
* Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer
* Karl of Austria, last Austria ...
, the mathematician, who had been arrested for belonging to a liberal student fraternity in 1824, greatly affected Friedrich. He was with Karl during his battle with mental illness and when he died prematurely in 1834. The physician Dr. Theodor Spoerri, a family friend, thought he suffered from "heaviness of the blood" (depression). He also thought that the "genius" of the talented Feuerbach family was most concentrated in Friedrich, the least-known brother. The philosopher
Georg Friedrich Daumer
Georg Friedrich Daumer (Nuremberg, 5 March 1800 – Würzburg, 14 December 1875) was a German poet and philosopher. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native city, at that time directed by the famous philosopher Hegel.
In 1817 he entered th ...
was one of his few occasional visitors. The
liberal theologian Johann Heinrich Wichern also acknowledged his influence.
Feuerbach was a qualified
Orientalist with several publications. However, under the influence of his brother
Ludwig, he turned to philosophy. He expounded a
critique of religion
Criticism of religion involves criticism of the validity, concept, or ideas of religion.
Historical records of criticism of religion go back to at least 5th century BCE in ancient Greece, in Athens specifically, with Diagoras "the Atheist" of ...
that was heavily indebted to his brother's. He professed "to preach what he taught." Friedrich often actively assisted Ludwig in editing his manuscripts. In spite of his atheism, Friedrich seems to have sympathized with a local liberal Protestant 'free faith' group. He died in Nuremberg on 24 January 1880.
Views
Friedrich Feuerbach shared his brother Ludwig's
materialistic humanism
Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and Agency (philosophy), agency of Human, human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical in ...
. 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." 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
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
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. 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
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...
. 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. The means to social reform is through education. Feuerbach's political ideal may be described as a kind of
utopian socialism
Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often de ...
: a benevolent secular State that provides people with a scientific education, organises conditions of life rationally, and encourages mutual love and assistance.
Although Feuerbach humbly thought of himself as a mere disseminator of his brother Ludwig's ideas, there were differences between them. Ludwig's distinctive analysis of the concept of God as alienated '
species being' played little role in Friedrich's writings; Friedrich focused on the nefarious implications of God as absolute arbitrary willpower. The note of social radicalism of the professed '
communist' Ludwig was largely absent from Friedrich, who never clarified whether the secular state he envisioned presiding over a society based on
mutual aid, could be established by the existing government by enlightened reform from above, or required a more radical change of system. Another difference concerns the role Friedrich assigns to the secular State in establishing conditions of universal happiness and enlightenment about religion; Ludwig places much less emphasis on the state and seems rather more hostile to it.
In 2018, the ''Center of International Feuerbach Research'' at the
University of Münster
The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.
With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of stud ...
published the results of a conference concerning the relationship of Friedrich and Ludwig Feuerbach. Friedrich Feuerbach's ''Religion of Future'' was interpreted as a practical concept of a secular and public education to bring democracy forward. Following this view,
Wilhelm Marr
Friedrich Wilhelm Adolph Marr (November 16, 1819 – July 17, 1904) was a German agitator and journalist, who popularized the term "antisemitism" (1881) hich was invented by Moritz Steinschneider
Life
Marr was born in Magdeburg as the only son ...
misinterpreted the philosophy of the Feuerbach brothers to an alarming extent.
[ibid. p 7; cf. Ursula Reitemeyer: Unter Verdacht. Zum Antisemitismusvorwurf gegenüber Ludwig Feuerbachs Religions- und Geschichtsphilosophie. In: Feuerbach und der Judaismus. Ed. by U. Reitemeyer, Takayuki Shibata, Francesco Tomasoni, Münster 2009, p 164.https://www.waxmann.com/waxmann-buecher/?no_cache=1&tx_p2waxmann_pi2%5Bbuch%5D=BUC120357&tx_p2waxmann_pi2%5Baction%5D=show&tx_p2waxmann_pi2%5Bcontroller%5D=Buch&cHash=45382b454c845aec75e3dc945c080ebf]
Works
*''Manon Lescaut von Abbé Prévost. Mit einer Charakteristik Prévosts und seiner Romane.'' (Tr. of Antoine François Prévost's ''L'Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut'', 1731. With an essay on Prévost and his novels.) Erlangen, 1834.
*''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.
Notes
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.
Radbruch, G., 'Die Feuerbachs. Eine geistige Dynastie.' In: ''Gestalten und Gedanken. Acht Studien.'' Leipzig 1942, p. 175 f.
Spoerri, Th., ''Genie und Krankheit. Eine psychopathologische Untersuchung der Familie Feuerbach.'' Basel/New York, 1952, pp. 73–76.
Kantzenbach, F.W., 'Im Schatten des Größeren. Friedrich Feuerbach, Bruder und Gesinnungsgefährte Ludwig Feuerbachs.' In: ''Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg,'' vol. 57. Nuremberg, 1970, pp. 281–306.
Stephan Schlüter, Thassilo Polcik, Jan Thumann (Ed.): ''Philosophie und Pädagogik der Zukunft. Ludwig und Friedrich Feuerbach im Dialog.'' Münster 2018.
Ursula Reitemeyer: Religion oder Pädagogik der Zukunft? Friedrich Feuerbachs Entwurf einer Menschenbildung in nicht-konfessioneller Absicht. In: Olaf Briese, Martin Friedrich (Ed.): ''Religion - Religionskritik - Religiöse Transformation im Vormärz'', Bielefeld 2015, p 155–173. http://www.vormaerz.de/jahrbuch.html#Jahrbuch%20FVF%2020
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Feuerbach, Friedrich
1806 births
1880 deaths
People from Landshut
19th-century German philosophers
German philologists
German atheists
Atheist philosophers
German socialists
19th-century German people
German male writers
19th-century atheists