FEUERBACH, Lrnwro ANDREAS, German philosopher, fourth son of the following, was b. at Anspach, 28th July, 1804. After studying theology for two years at Heidelberg under Paulus and Daub, in 1824 he was attracted to Berlin for the purpose of hearing Hegel, and, soon after he abandoned theology, with the view of devoting himself entirely to philosophy. In 1828, he became prircadoceat in the university of Erlangen,but in a few years quitted the academical chair, and gave up his whole time to literary labor. In a small anonymous work (Gedanken fiber Tod and Unsterblichkeit, Nfirnberg, 1830), which attracted little attention when it appeared, lie indicated that he had already gone beyond the stand-point of his master Hegel, by combating the doctrine of immortality. During the next few years, he published three works on portions of the history of philosophy, treat ing severally of the period between Bacon andSpinoza, of Liebnitz and of Pierre Bayle. But these historical works only paved the way to a critical investigation into the nature of religion and its relation to philosophy, the results of which have been given to the world in several works well known to speculative theologians. The most celebrated of these is his work on the Nature of Christianity (Des Wesen des Christenthums, Leip. 1841; 2 Aufl. 1843), which has been translated into English. Starting from the Hegelian doctrine, that the absolute comes to consciousness only in humanity, F. denies to it any existence beyond the human consciousness, maintaining it to be merely the projection by man of his own ideal into the objective world, on which he feels his dependence. All authority above man, and consequently all moral obligation, is therefore consist ently regarded as a delusion proceeding from man himself, and the highest good is explained as that which is on the whole most pleasurable. Yet even this highest good is further explained as consisting in resemblance to that ideal humanity which man creates for himself, and worships as God. A kind of ideal theism is therefore retained by F.; but when his doctrines were adopted by the mass of German communists, they degenerated, perhaps logically, into an actual atheism, which ignored any moral or social law imposed on the individual from any other source than himself.—The works of F. have been collected, with additions and corrections to bring them into accordance with his later views (F.'s Seimmtliche Werke, 10 Bde., Leip. 1846-66). He died 13th Sept., 1872. See Karl Grain's Ludwig F. (1874), and Beyer's Leben send Geist F.'s (1873).
FErERBACH, PAUL JOHANN ANSELM, RITTER VON, one of the most distinguished criminal jurists of Germany, was b. at Jena, 14th Nov., 1775. Brought up at Frankfort
on-the-Main, where his father was an advocate, and educated in the gymnasium there, he went in 1792 to Jena, where he cultivated his mind by the study of philosophy, and then devoted himself to positive law, In 1798, he appeared as criminal jurist in a work On the Grime of .1Egh Treason, and in the following year he began to deliver lectures in the university of Jena. In his lectures and published writings, he introduced into crimi nal jurisprudence a new method of treatment, which was systematized in his compen dium of German penal law (Lehrbueh des Gemeinen, in Deutschland geltenden peinlichen Privatrechts, Giessen, 1801; 14 Anti. von Mittermaier, 1874). This celebrated work placed F. at the head of a new school ofjurists, who maintain that the decision of the judge in every case ought to be determined solely by an express deliverance of the penal law, never by his own discretion, and who on that account obtained the name of rigor ists. In 1801, F. was appointed ordinary professor in Jena, but in 1802 accepted a call to Kiel. In 1804, he was removed to the university of Landshut; but next year, having received a commission to prepare a penal code for Bavaria, he was transferred to Munich as privy referendary for the ministerial, judicial, and police departments; and in 1808 was appointed privy-councilor. The new penal code which he planned for Bavaria (Strafgesetzbuch, fur das ElMigreich Baiern, Munchen, 1813), received, after a few modi fications, the royal approval, and was taken as a basis in the emendation of the criminal law of several other countries. During this period also, he published his Remarkable Cases in Criminal Law (Merkwurdige Criminalrechtsfalle, 2 Bde., Giessen, 1808-11), which first led the way to a deeper psychological treatment of such cases. In 1812, he pub lished a work on trial by jury, to which a second volume, on the judicial procedure of France ,was added in 1825, as the result of a visit to Paris in 1821. In 1817, he became second president of the court of appeal in Bamberg, and aftewards first president of the court of appeal at Anspach for the Rezat district. In 1832, he published a work on the unfortunate Kaspar Hauser, whose mysterious fate had strongly attracted his interest. He had just edited a collection of his miscellaneous writings, when he died at Frank fort-on the Main, 25th May, 1833. An interesting life of F. has been written by his son, Ludwig (Leben send Wirken Anselm von Feuerbachs, 2 Bde., Leip. 1852). F. left, besides three daughters, five sons, who have all distinguished themselves in German literature.