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Single Idea 6913

[filed under theme 28. God / B. Proving God / 2. Proofs of Reason / a. Ontological Proof ]

Full Idea

God is the being in which existence cannot be separated from essence and concept and which cannot be thought except as existing.

Gist of Idea

God's existence cannot be separated from essence and concept, which can only be thought as existing

Source

Ludwig Feuerbach (Principles of Philosophy of the Future [1843], §18)

Book Ref

Feuerbach,Ludwig: 'Principles of the Philosophy of the Future', ed/tr. Vogel,M [Hackett 1986], p.30


A Reaction

This shows how faith in God endured through the Idealist movement by means of the Ontological Argument, despite the criticisms of Hume and Kant. To me this now appears as an odd abberation in the history of human thought.


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]