{"agent_id":"feuerbach","agent_name":"Ludwig Feuerbach","slug":"projection","label":"Projection: is the concept an explanation of religion or a redescription of it that assumes what it needs to prove?","topic":"Projection","question":"Is the concept an explanation of religion or a redescription of it that assumes what it needs to prove?","position":"The objection mistakes the order of the argument. I do not begin from the premise that there is no God and infer that religion must be projection. I begin from what religion actually says about God and show that every predicate of it is a human predicate raised to infinity, and that this is visible in the texts of theology itself, which is why my method is exegesis and not speculation.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"The objection mistakes the order of the argument.","n":[]},{"t":"I do not begin from the premise that there is no God and infer that religion must be projection.","n":[]},{"t":"I begin from what religion actually says about God and show that every predicate of it is a human predicate raised to infinity, and that this is visible in the texts of theology itself, which is why my method is exegesis and not speculation.","n":[1,2,3,4]}]],"texts":"*The Essence of Christianity*, Introduction §§1-2 and the Concluding Application; *Principles of the Philosophy of the Future* (1843) §§7-30. Reception: Harvey, *Feuerbach and the Interpretation of Religion*, chs. 1-3 and 7-8 on the logic of projection and on contemporary projection theories; the standard objection that a projection theory presupposes the non-existence of its object.","works":["*The Essence of Christianity*, Introduction §§1-2 and the Concluding Application","*Principles of the Philosophy of the Future* (1843) §§7-30"],"reception":"Harvey, *Feuerbach and the Interpretation of Religion*, chs. 1-3 and 7-8 on the logic of projection and on contemporary projection theories; the standard objection that a projection theory presupposes the non-existence of its object.","status":"Live and serious. It is the objection most often made and the one on which the value of the whole method turns.","era":"1804-1872","discipline":"Philosophy","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"Introduction to The Essence of Christianity","page":"p. 136","canonical":"","quote":"Be- cause the predicate is not multum, it is multa. In truth, the positive predicates are thought and extension. With these two, infinitely more is said than with nameless innumerable predicates; for they say something definite; they enable me to know something.","label":"Introduction to The Essence of Christianity, p. 136"},{"n":2,"work":"Lectures on the Essence of Religion","page":"pp. 281–282","canonical":"","quote":"And what is true of the word and of love, is true of the mind in general, of the intelligence, will, consciousness, and personality that are attributed to God, or deified, i. e., represented as God.","label":"Lectures on the Essence of Religion, pp. 281–282"},{"n":3,"work":"Preface to the Second Edition of The Essence of Christianity","page":"pp. 268–269","canonical":"","quote":"It consequently falls into two parts, one of which is mainly affirmative and the other, including the Appendix, mostly but not wholly, negative. In both parts, it is, however, the same thing that is demonstrated, albeit in different or even contradictory ways.","label":"Preface to the Second Edition of The Essence of Christianity, pp. 268–269"},{"n":4,"work":"The Essence of Christianity","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"But it is said in the same breath, a God who is not essentially distinguished from us is no God. The essence of religion is the immediate, involuntary, unconscious contemplation of the human nature as another, a distinct nature. But when this projected image of human nature is made an object of reflection, of theology, it becomes an inexhaustible mine of falsehoods, illusions, contradictions, and sophisms.","label":"The Essence of Christianity"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"the-two-theories-of-religion","label":"The two theories of religion: is religion the projection of the human species-essence, or the expression of a finite creature's dependence on nature?"},{"slug":"friend-or-destroyer","label":"Friend or destroyer: does reducing theology to anthropology preserve the content of religion or abolish it?"},{"slug":"death-and-immortality","label":"Death and immortality: is the denial of personal survival a loss, and what is left of a person afterwards?"}]}