Ludwig Feuerbach German philosopher Date of Birth: 28.07.1804 Country: Germany

Biography of Ludwig Feuerbach

Ludwig Feuerbach was a German philosopher, materialist, and atheist. He studied at the Theological Faculty of Heidelberg University and attended lectures by Hegel in Berlin. Feuerbach later taught at Erlangen University. However, after the publication of his work "Thoughts on Death and Immortality," in which he rejected the idea of immortality of the soul, he was deprived of his teaching rights and focused on scientific research.

In his later years, Feuerbach developed a keen interest in social and economic issues, studying Marx's "Capital" and joining the Social Democratic Party in 1870. His main focus in life was the relentless fight against religion. In contrast to Hegelian philosophy, he viewed philosophy and religion as mutually exclusive worldviews. According to Feuerbach, the endurance of religious beliefs is not only based on deception exploiting ignorance but also rooted in the "nature of man" and the conditions of his life.

The source of religious illusions, according to Feuerbach, lies in the feelings of dependence, limitation, and powerlessness of humans towards uncontrollable elements and forces. Powerlessness seeks an outlet in the hope and consolation generated by imagination, thus giving rise to images of gods as sources of fulfilling human hopes. Feuerbach believed that religion paralyzes human aspirations for a better life in the real world and its transformation. Rejecting religious cult, he opposed it with a cult of humanity, cloaked in a religious guise of "the worship of man". He regarded his motto "man to man is god" as an antidote to atheistic religion.

Feuerbach's critique of religion extended to a critique of philosophical idealism. Its main flaw lies in the identification of being and thinking. In the theory of knowledge, he continued the line of materialistic sensualism, considering experience as the source of knowledge, with a close interconnection between sensory contemplation and thinking. At the center of Feuerbach's teachings was the human being as the "sole, universal, and highest object of philosophy."

Feuerbach's anthropological materialism stems from considering humans as psychophysiological beings who are simultaneously material objects and thinking subjects. He viewed humans as purely biological rather than social beings, which revealed the limitation of Feuerbach's materialism, as well as all pre-Marxist materialism. Feuerbach's materialism served as the starting point for the development of Marxism.