FEUERBACH
FIGUEBAS Y MOEAOAS
of the Government of National Defence (
and Mayor of Paris. In 1871 he was i
returned to the National Assembly, and in
the following year he went as ambassador
to Athens. A few years later he was
recognized as one of the leaders of the
anti-clericals. As Minister of Public In
struction (1879) he was the chief organizer
of secular education in France, and he held
the Premiership in 1880 and 1883-85. In
1891 he entered the Senate, and in 1893
he was chosen President of that body.
Ferry was a consistent Agnostic and able
statesman, though Clemenceau opposed
him on colonial policy. See Eambaud s
Jules Ferry (1903) and Discours et opinions
de Jules Ferry (2 vols., 1903-1904). D.
Mar. 17, 1893.
FEUERBACH, Friedrich Heinrich,
German orientalist, brother of Ludwig Andreas. B. Sep. 29, 1806. Ed. Munich. After finishing his course in Germany he went to Paris to study oriental and modern languages. In his various works (Thean- tliropos, 1838; Die Religion der Zukunft, 3 vols., 1843-45 ; Gedanken und Tatsachen, 1862, etc.) he is not less Eationalistic than his more famous brother. He wrote also many works on philology. D. June 24, 1880.
FEUERBACH, Ludwig Andreas,
German philosopher. B. July 28, 1804. Ed. Ansbach Gymnasium, and Heidelberg and Berlin Universities. At first a devout student of theology, Feuerbach adopted Hegel s philosophy, and in 1830 he pub lished, anonymously, his famous Gedanken iiber Tod und Unsterblichkeit (denying per sonal immortality). For this he lost his academic position, and he became an inde pendent writer on philosophy and religion. After 1837 he abandoned Hegelianism, and in his chief works (Das Wesen des Christen- thums, 1841, translated by George Eliot, and Das Wesen der Religion, 1845) he regards God as a dream and all speculation beyond nature as a waste of time. In his latest work he expounds what is generally 251
called scientific Materialism, though he
never accepted that title. His collected
works were issued in ten volumes (1846-66),
and there are biographical studies of him
by Griin, Beyer, Starcke, Engels, Bolin,
Jodl, and Kohut. His style was brilliant
and caustic, and his influence very con
siderable. D. Sep. 13, 1872.
FICHTE, Professor Johann Gottlieb,
German philosopher. B. May 19, 1762. Ed. Pforta Gymnasium, and Jena and Leipzig Universities. He was a tutor until 1791, when he met Kant and accepted his philosophy. In 1792 he published a Kritik oiler 0/enbarung (" Criticism of all Revela tion "), and in 1794 he became professor of philosophy at Jena. He diverged more and more from Kant, and an article he published in 1798 (declaring God to be only the moral order of the universe) brought upon him a charge of Atheism, and he was dismissed. His enthusiastic preaching of the war of liberation made him popular, and in 1810 he became professor at, and rector of, Berlin University. His system of "transcendental idealism" assumes that we know only Self not the individual Self, but the Absolute Ego manifested in all consciousness. He was a Pantheist, and as deep in ethical fervour as Spinoza (so that much that was written about Fichte during the War was ludicrous). D. Jan. 27, 1814.
FIELDING-HALL, Harold Fielding Patrick Hall, writer. He attracted much attention by his Soul of a People (the Burmese people) in 1898, and, after issuing several volumes of tales and poems, by his Hearts of Men in 1904. His personal creed is given at length in The World-Soul (1913). God is an unknown Power or World- Soul pervading the universe. He rejects Chris tian doctrines and personal immortality, and is not unlike Emerson in his vague Theism.
FIGUERAS Y MORACAS, Estanislao,
Spanish statesman. B. Nov. 13, 1819.
Ed. Madrid. He was a Republican and
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