Feuerbach Ludwig Andreas

Feuerbach, Ludwig Andreas (1804-1872), a German philosopher, born in Bavaria. He studied divinity in Heidelberg, but being smitten with a love of philosophy he went to Berlin, where he attended Hegel's lectures. For a time he seemed to have adopted Hegel's principles, but he gradually worked himself free of them and took up an independent position. He supported himself by acting as a private tutor, but his publication of Thoughts on Heath and Immortality (1830) disgusted the Government by its negation of personal immortality, and he was deprived of his position as privat-docent. He then married a lady possessed of some little property, and for some time lived a retired country life in the castle of Bruckberg. In after years he suffered a good deal both in body and estate. He may be looked on as representing the reaction from metaphysics to empiricism, and though he has had some influence upon German thought, made little impression outside his own country. Among his chief works are a History of Modern Philosophy, The Essence of Christianity (1841), and Theoqony (1857).