Franz von Baader

Franz von Baader (27 March 1765 – 23 May 1841), born Benedikt Franz Xaver Baader, was a German Catholic philosopher, theologian, physician, and mining engineer. Resisting the empiricism of his day, he denounced most Western philosophy since Descartes as trending into atheism and has been considered a revival of the Scholastic school. He was one of the most influential theologians of his age but his influence on subsequent philosophy has been less marked. Today he is thought to have re-introduced theological engagement with Meister Eckhart and Theosophy more generally.

Life

Benedikt Franz Xaver Baader was born in Munich, Bavaria, on 27 March 1765. He was the third son of Joseph Franz von Paula Baader (15 September 1733 – 16 February 1794) and Maria Dorothea Rosalia von Schöpf (25 October 1742 – 5 February 1829), who were married on 23 May 1761. In 1775, Franz's father Joseph became the court physician of Maximilian III Joseph, the elector of Bavaria. (The elector died two years later.)

Franz' two older brothers were both distinguished men. Clemens Alois Andreas Baader (8 April 1762 – 23 March 1838) was an author. Joseph Anton Ignaz Baader (30 September 1763 – 20 November 1835) was an engineer.

Franz studied medicine at Ingolstadt and Vienna, and for a short time assisted his father in his medical practice. However, Franz soon discovered that life as a physician did not suit him, and he decided to become a mining engineer instead. He studied under Abraham Gottlob Werner at Freiberg, travelled through several of the mining districts in north Germany, and resided in England from 1792 to 1796.

In England, Franz von Baader became acquainted with the empiricism of David Hume, David Hartley, and William Godwin, which was extremely distasteful to him. But he also came into contact with the mystical speculations of Meister Eckhart Alexander I entirely alienated Schelling.
During this time, Baader continued to apply himself to his profession.

He gained a prize of 12,000 gulden (≈117  kg silver) for his new method of employing sodium sulfate instead of potash in the making of glass. From 1817 to 1820, he held the post of superintendent of mines and was raised to the rank of nobility for his services. He retired in 1820, and thereafter published one of the best of his works, ''Fermenta Cognitionis'' in 6 parts from 1822 to 1825. In it, he combats modern philosophy and recommends the study of Böhme.

In 1826, when the new university was opened in Munich, he was appointed professor of philosophy and speculative theology. He published some of his lectures there in 4 parts from 1827 to 1836 under the title '.

His 1831 "Forty Sentences from a Religious Erotic" was dedicated to Emilie Linder, a Munich painter.

In 1838, he publicly opposed the interference of the Roman Catholic Church in civil matters and, in consequence, was interdicted from lecturing on the philosophy of religion during the last three years of his life. He died on 23 May 1841. He is buried in the Alter Südfriedhof in Munich.

Philosophy

It is difficult to summarize Baader's philosophy, for he expressed his deepest thoughts in obscure aphorisms or mystical symbols and analogies. His doctrines are mostly expounded in short detached essays, in comments on the writings of Böhme and St-Martin, or in his extensive correspondence and journals. However, there are salient points which mark the outline of his thought. Baader starts from the position that human 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 Scholasticism, since like the Scholastics he believed that theology and philosophy are not opposed but that reason has to make clear the truths given by authority and revelation. In his attempts to draw the realms of faith and knowledge still closer, however, he approaches the mysticism of Meister Eckhart

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