Well, obviously, through Feuerbach’s new Philosophy of the Future. But first, let’s denounce modern philosophical thought and religion.
More seriously, on page 19, Feuerbach makes an important claim: “That from which God is free, from that you must liberate yourself if you want to reach God; and you make yourself really free when you conceive him. Consequently, if you think of God as a being that does not presuppose any other beings or objects, then you yourself will also think without presupposing an external object; the attribute that you affix to God is an attribute of your thought. Only what is activity in man is being in God or imagined as such.” In order for man to be free, he must liberate himself from all that God has liberated himself from--from the sensuous and material objects of the world. Man must realize the essence of reason for that which is in man’s essence will be in his mind. With the realization of reason, man can be truly free.
Taking a step back to the beginning of this reading. Feuerbach spends a significant amount of time differentiating between ordinary theology and speculative philosophy. Ordinary theology imagines God as a being that is completely independent from reason and as a fantasy where as speculative philosophy, strives to present God as rational and as truth itself. Feuerbach claims that if one cannot imagine a being without its senses then God will also be limited by his senses. Philosophy claims that God surpasses these limitations of theology with the realization that reason is satisfied in the infinite being. Just as the essence of the eye is revealed to us through the object of the eye, the essence of reason is revealed to us through the object of god. This determines a certain relationship between man and god: “the essence of the subject [is] derived from the essence of the object” (10). Thus, the essence of man is derived from the essence of God according to speculative philosophy. God is determining the thoughts of man according to modern speculative philosophy whereas in ordinary theology, man determines the thoughts of God because he exists in man’s imagination. According to Descartes and Leibniz, only God can conceive “all things without obscurity, that is, without the senses and the imagination” (13).
Theology and speculative philosophy also differ in their conception of God’s knowledge. Theology because it attributes strictly the senses to God, sees his knowledge as strictly empirical. Divine, sensuous knowledge is all-knowing but in a way that is minute and practically insignificant (he gives the example of God knowing each hair on a man’s head because each hair itself has been counted). This divine knowledge is another fantasy, another thing that Feuerbach believes lies in the imagination. Speculative philosophy posits that God’s knowledge is abstracted from the material and is based in reason.
Theology only conceives of god as a being wholly separated from man and nature. When speculative philosophy tries to intertwine God and man with its ideas of its similarities, God is negated. The traditional theological thinker has a fundamentally different view of God from the modern speculative philosopher but both schools of thought seem to lead to the negation of God--or his lack of existence. Now that man has freed himself from these problematic theories--man needs a new philosophy--a philosophy of the future.
More seriously, on page 19, Feuerbach makes an important claim: “That from which God is free, from that you must liberate yourself if you want to reach God; and you make yourself really free when you conceive him. Consequently, if you think of God as a being that does not presuppose any other beings or objects, then you yourself will also think without presupposing an external object; the attribute that you affix to God is an attribute of your thought. Only what is activity in man is being in God or imagined as such.” In order for man to be free, he must liberate himself from all that God has liberated himself from--from the sensuous and material objects of the world. Man must realize the essence of reason for that which is in man’s essence will be in his mind. With the realization of reason, man can be truly free.
Taking a step back to the beginning of this reading. Feuerbach spends a significant amount of time differentiating between ordinary theology and speculative philosophy. Ordinary theology imagines God as a being that is completely independent from reason and as a fantasy where as speculative philosophy, strives to present God as rational and as truth itself. Feuerbach claims that if one cannot imagine a being without its senses then God will also be limited by his senses. Philosophy claims that God surpasses these limitations of theology with the realization that reason is satisfied in the infinite being. Just as the essence of the eye is revealed to us through the object of the eye, the essence of reason is revealed to us through the object of god. This determines a certain relationship between man and god: “the essence of the subject [is] derived from the essence of the object” (10). Thus, the essence of man is derived from the essence of God according to speculative philosophy. God is determining the thoughts of man according to modern speculative philosophy whereas in ordinary theology, man determines the thoughts of God because he exists in man’s imagination. According to Descartes and Leibniz, only God can conceive “all things without obscurity, that is, without the senses and the imagination” (13).
Theology and speculative philosophy also differ in their conception of God’s knowledge. Theology because it attributes strictly the senses to God, sees his knowledge as strictly empirical. Divine, sensuous knowledge is all-knowing but in a way that is minute and practically insignificant (he gives the example of God knowing each hair on a man’s head because each hair itself has been counted). This divine knowledge is another fantasy, another thing that Feuerbach believes lies in the imagination. Speculative philosophy posits that God’s knowledge is abstracted from the material and is based in reason.
Theology only conceives of god as a being wholly separated from man and nature. When speculative philosophy tries to intertwine God and man with its ideas of its similarities, God is negated. The traditional theological thinker has a fundamentally different view of God from the modern speculative philosopher but both schools of thought seem to lead to the negation of God--or his lack of existence. Now that man has freed himself from these problematic theories--man needs a new philosophy--a philosophy of the future.
I have a few questions with your blog Hannah, first what kind of freedom do you exactly mean when you say that "...man can be truly free". Second, are you saying that the freedom results from both perspectives (theist and speculative) in the sense that both are negating the existence of god? I partially have a problem where you use what Feuerbach says about the knowledge god has as being in the imagination, I took that to be some sort of a critique on the Theist response to god's knowledge; in that the knowledge god has-which is in the imagination-is false. Although when you say in your first paragraph that man must liberate himself sort of like god has in the theist sense, that helped me better understand what you ultimately meant, so basically for the most part I was hoping you can elaborate on that.
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