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HUME, KANT, AND FEUERBACH: WHY THE ANTHROPOMORPHIC CRITIQUE REVEALS A FALSE DILEMMA BETWEEN NATURALISTIC ATHEISM AND ANTI-NATURALISTIC THEISM

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2019

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Abstract

In current debates concerning atheism, two positions are considered possible: naturalistic atheism or anti-naturalistic theism. Anti-naturalistic theism is motivated by the failure of naturalism to explain the fundamental nature of reality. We, however, endorse anti-naturalistic atheism by reviving the ‘anthropomorphic critique’, arguing that theism misattributes human traits to the deity. Anti-naturalistic atheism is better suited to refute theists, since it undercuts their appeal to science's inadequacies. We trace the anthropomorphic critique from Hume's Dialogues, through Kant's epistemology, and conclude with its reception in Feuerbach. The anthropomorphic critique is an epistemological – not metaphysical – thesis, hence, it is agnostic about the fundamental nature of reality. Yet it convincingly shows that theism is not a tenable position. In essence, we aim to decouple atheism from naturalism, on the basis of a salient critique in the history of modern philosophy, in order to ameliorate current debates between atheists and theists.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2019

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References

Notes

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5 Feuerbach, Ludwig, The Essence of Christianity (New York: Dover, 2008)Google Scholar.

6 Engels, Frederick, Ludwig Feuerbach and the Outcome of Classical German Philosophy (New York: International Publishers, 2010), 84Google Scholar.