more on this theme     |     more from this thinker


Single Idea 19457

[filed under theme 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / a. Nature of Being ]

Full Idea

Being in the sense in which it is an object of speculative thought is that which is purely and simply unmediated, that is, undetermined; in other words, there is nothing to distinguish and nothing to think of in being.

Gist of Idea

Being is what is undetermined, and hence indistinguishable

Source

Ludwig Feuerbach (Principles of Philosophy of the Future [1843], 26)

Book Ref

Feuerbach,Ludwig: 'The Fiery Brook: Selected Writings', ed/tr. Hanfi,Zawar [Anchor 1972], p.213


A Reaction

This sounds remarkably like the idea of 'prime matter' used in scholastic Aristotelian philosophy. Matter existing without form is somehow ungraspable, but presented from Hegel onwards as the ultimate mystery.

Related Ideas

Idea 15771 Primary matter is what characterises other stuffs, and it has no distinct identity [Aristotle]

Idea 16589 Prime matter lacks essence, but is only potentially and indeterminately a physical thing [Auriol]

Idea 16571 Prime matter is exceptionally obscure [Zabarella]


The 24 ideas from 'Principles of Philosophy of the Future'

Catholicism concerns God in himself, Protestantism what God is for man [Feuerbach]
If God is only an object for man, then only the essence of man is revealed in God [Feuerbach]
Absolute idealism is the realized divine mind of Leibnizian theism [Feuerbach]
Modern philosophy begins with Descartes' abstraction from sensation and matter [Feuerbach]
Consciousness is absolute reality, and everything exists through consciousness [Feuerbach]
God is for us a mere empty idea, which we fill with our own ego and essence [Feuerbach]
God's existence cannot be separated from essence and concept, which can only be thought as existing [Feuerbach]
Philosophy should not focus on names, but on the determined nature of things [Feuerbach]
Absolute thought remains in another world from being [Feuerbach]
Being posits essence, and my essence is my being [Feuerbach]
Particularity belongs to being, whereas generality belongs to thought [Feuerbach]
Plotinus was ashamed to have a body [Feuerbach]
God is what man would like to be [Feuerbach]
The new philosophy thinks of the concrete in a concrete (not a abstract) manner [Feuerbach]
If you love nothing, it doesn't matter whether something exists or not [Feuerbach]
The only true being is of the senses, perception, feeling and love [Feuerbach]
Only that which can be an object of religion is an object of philosophy [Feuerbach]
Empiricism is right about ideas, but forgets man himself as one of our objects [Feuerbach]
Ideas arise through communication, and reason is reached through community [Feuerbach]
The laws of reality are also the laws of thought [Feuerbach]
In man the lowest senses of smell and taste elevate themselves to intellectual acts [Feuerbach]
Man is not a particular being, like animals, but a universal being [Feuerbach]
The essence of man is in community, but with distinct individuals [Feuerbach]
Being is what is undetermined, and hence indistinguishable [Feuerbach]