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Single Idea 6911
[filed under theme 28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 4. God Reflects Humanity
]
Full Idea
God exists, but he is for us a tabula rasa, an empty being, a mere idea; God, as we conceive and think of him, is our ego, our mind, and our essence.
Clarification
A 'tabula rasa' is a blank page
Gist of Idea
God is for us a mere empty idea, which we fill with our own ego and essence
Source
Ludwig Feuerbach (Principles of Philosophy of the Future [1843], §17)
Book Ref
Feuerbach,Ludwig: 'Principles of the Philosophy of the Future', ed/tr. Vogel,M [Hackett 1986], p.29
A Reaction
He accepted God's existence because of the Ontological Argument. This is a little stronger than Hume's view (Idea 2185), because Hume seems to be talking about imagining God, but Feuerbach says this is our understanding of God.
Related Idea
Idea 2185
The idea of an infinite, intelligent, wise and good God arises from augmenting the best qualities of our own minds [Hume]
The
24 ideas
from 'Principles of Philosophy of the Future'
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6902
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Catholicism concerns God in himself, Protestantism what God is for man
[Feuerbach]
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6903
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If God is only an object for man, then only the essence of man is revealed in God
[Feuerbach]
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6905
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Absolute idealism is the realized divine mind of Leibnizian theism
[Feuerbach]
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6904
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Modern philosophy begins with Descartes' abstraction from sensation and matter
[Feuerbach]
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6908
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Consciousness is absolute reality, and everything exists through consciousness
[Feuerbach]
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6911
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God is for us a mere empty idea, which we fill with our own ego and essence
[Feuerbach]
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6913
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God's existence cannot be separated from essence and concept, which can only be thought as existing
[Feuerbach]
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6918
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Philosophy should not focus on names, but on the determined nature of things
[Feuerbach]
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6919
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Absolute thought remains in another world from being
[Feuerbach]
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6920
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Being posits essence, and my essence is my being
[Feuerbach]
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6921
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Particularity belongs to being, whereas generality belongs to thought
[Feuerbach]
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6924
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Plotinus was ashamed to have a body
[Feuerbach]
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6923
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God is what man would like to be
[Feuerbach]
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6925
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The new philosophy thinks of the concrete in a concrete (not a abstract) manner
[Feuerbach]
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6927
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If you love nothing, it doesn't matter whether something exists or not
[Feuerbach]
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6926
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The only true being is of the senses, perception, feeling and love
[Feuerbach]
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6928
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Only that which can be an object of religion is an object of philosophy
[Feuerbach]
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6931
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Empiricism is right about ideas, but forgets man himself as one of our objects
[Feuerbach]
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6932
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Ideas arise through communication, and reason is reached through community
[Feuerbach]
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6933
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The laws of reality are also the laws of thought
[Feuerbach]
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6935
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In man the lowest senses of smell and taste elevate themselves to intellectual acts
[Feuerbach]
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6934
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Man is not a particular being, like animals, but a universal being
[Feuerbach]
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6936
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The essence of man is in community, but with distinct individuals
[Feuerbach]
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19457
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Being is what is undetermined, and hence indistinguishable
[Feuerbach]
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