The Philosophy Of Ludwig Feuerbach (1941) by William B. Chamberlain: Heaven was not his destination
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| Ludwig Feuerbach |
Excerpt from the author's introduction:
The philosophy of Feuerbach has received very little direct treatment in the English language. Engels’ Ludwig Feuerbach has been translated and rather generally read, but this brochure takes Feuerbach as a jumping-off place, rather than concerning itself directly with him. Dr. Sidney Hook’s From Hegel to Marx devotes two excellent chapters to Feuerbach in which the latter’s conclusions are summarized, but in no sense exhaustively discussed.As the title indicates, Dr. Hook’s chief interest is considerably wider than the philosophy of Feuerbach. Aside from these two books, there exists virtually nothing on Feuerbach in Enghsh. In French there is Levy’s La Phdosophie de Feuerbach, a highly comprehensive work, though criticized by Marxists as too Feuerbachian; and in Germany, there is, of course, a rather more considerable literature in which the works of Starcke, Bolin, Rawidowicz, and others on the technical side are complemented by the Marxist writings on the broader, historical side. Most of these are noted in the bibliography at the end of the book.
An associate of Left Hegelian circles, Feuerbach advocated atheism and anthropological materialism. Many of his philosophical writings offered a critical analysis of religion. His thought was influential in the development of historical materialism where he is often recognized as a bridge between Hegel and Marx.
Essentially the thought of Feuerbach consisted in a new interpretation of religion's phenomena, giving an anthropological explanation. Following Schleiermacher’s theses, Feuerbach thought religion was principally a matter of feeling in its unrestricted subjectivity. So the feeling breaks through all the limits of understanding and manifests itself in several religious beliefs. But, beyond the feeling, is the fancy, the true maker of projections of "Gods" and of the sacred in general.
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