Franz von Baader (27 March 1765 – 23 May 1841), bornBenedikt Franz Xaver Baader, was aCatholictheologian,philosopher, andmining engineer fromGermany. Resisting theempiricism of his day, he denounced mostWestern philosophy sinceDescartes as trending intoatheism and has been considered a revival of theScholastic school. He was an important theorist ofandrogyny.[1]
He was one of the most influential theologians of his age but his influence on subsequent philosophy has been less marked, and tends to be submerged into the esoteric discussions of later thinkers rather than cited explicitly in major publications. Today Baader is thought to have re-introduced theological engagement withMeister Eckhart into academia and evenChristianity andTheosophy more generally.[2]
Benedikt Franz Xaver Baader[3] was born inMunich,Bavaria, on 27 March 1765.[4] He was the third son of Joseph Franz von Paula Baader[lower-alph 1] (15 September 1733 – 16 February 1794) and Maria Dorothea Rosalia von Schöpf (25 October 1742 – 5 February 1829),[5][6][lower-alph 2] who were married on 23 May 1761. In 1775, Franz's father Joseph became the court physician ofMaximilian III Joseph,[7] theelector of Bavaria. (The elector died two years later.)
Franz' two older brothers were both distinguished men. Clemens Alois Andreas Baader[lower-alph 3] (8 April 1762 – 23 March 1838) was an author.Joseph Anton Ignaz Baader (30 September 1763 – 20 November 1835) was anengineer.[8]
Franz studiedmedicine atIngolstadt andVienna, and for a short time assisted his father in his medical practice. However, Franz soon discovered that life as a physician did not suit him, and he decided to become a mining engineer instead.[4] He studied underAbraham Gottlob Werner atFreiberg, travelled through several of the mining districts in north Germany, and resided inEngland from 1792 to 1796.[4]
In England, Franz von Baader became acquainted with theempiricism ofDavid Hume,David Hartley, andWilliam Godwin, which was extremely distasteful to him. But he also came into contact with the mystical speculations ofMeister Eckhart,Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, and above all those ofJakob Böhme, which were more to his liking. In 1796, he returned to Germany and, inHamburg, became acquainted withF. H. Jacobi, with whom he became close friends. He also came into contact withFriedrich Schelling, and the works he published during this period were manifestly influenced by that philosopher, though Baader maintained his independence from Schelling.[4][lower-alph 4]
Their friendship continued till about the year 1822, when Baader's denunciation of modern philosophy in his letter toTsarAlexander I entirely alienated Schelling.During this time, Baader continued to apply himself to his profession.[10]
He gained a prize of 12,000gulden (≈117 kgsilver) for his new method of employingsodium sulfate instead ofpotash in the making ofglass. From 1817 to 1820, he held the post of superintendent of mines and was raised to the rank of nobility for his services.[11] He retired in 1820, and thereafter published one of the best of his works,Fermenta Cognitionis in 6 parts from 1822 to 1825. In it, he combats modern philosophy and recommends the study of Böhme.[11]
In 1826, when the new university was opened in Munich, he was appointed professor of philosophy and speculative theology. He published some of his lectures there in 4 parts from 1827 to 1836 under the titleSpekulative Dogmatik.[11]
His 1831 "Forty Sentences from a Religious Erotic" was dedicated toEmilie Linder, a Munich painter.[12]
In 1838, he publicly opposed the interference of theRoman Catholic Church in civil matters and, in consequence, was interdicted from lecturing on the philosophy of religion during the last three years of his life. He died on 23 May 1841.[11] He is buried in theAlter Südfriedhof in Munich.
Baader frequently wrote in obscureaphorisms or mystical symbols and analogies.[11][13] His doctrines are mostly expounded in short detached essays, in comments on the writings of Böhme and St-Martin, or in his extensive correspondence and journals.[14] Baader starts from the position that human reason by itself can never reach the end at which it aims and maintains that we cannot throw aside the presuppositions of faith, church, and tradition. His point of view may be compared toScholasticism, since like the Scholastics he believed that theology and philosophy are not opposed but that reason has to make clear the truths given by authority and revelation.[11] In his attempts to draw the realms of faith and knowledge still closer, however, he approaches the mysticism ofMeister Eckhart,Paracelsus, and Böhme.[11] Our existence depends upon God's cognition of us.[14][lower-alph 5] All self-consciousness is at the same time God-consciousness, and all knowledge is knowing with, consciousness of, or participation in God.[11]
Baader's philosophy is thus essentially a form oftheosophy.[11] God is not to be conceived as mere abstract Being (Latin:substantia) but as the primaryWill at the basis of all things and an everlasting process or activity (actus).[11] This process functions as a self-generation of God, in which we may distinguish two aspects—the immanent or esoteric and the eminent or exoteric.[11] Only insofar as the "primitive will" thinks or is conscious of itself can it distinguish knower and known, producer and produced, from which proceeds the power to become spirit.[11] God has His reality only insofar as He is absolute spirit.[11] TheTrinity (calledTernar in Baader) is not a given but is rendered possible, is mirrored in, and takes place through the eternal and impersonal idea or wisdom of God, which exists beside through not distinct from the "primitive will".[11] Personality and concrete reality is given to separate aspects of this Trinity through nature, which is eternally and necessarily produced by God.[11] These aspects of existence do not occur successively within time but occursub specie aeternitatis as necessary elements of the self-evolution of divine Being.[11] Its "nature" is not to be confused with thenature ofCreation, which is an unnecessary, free, and non-temporal act of God's love and will which cannot be speculatively deduced but must be accepted as a historic fact.[11]
Created beings were originally of three orders: the intelligent orangels; the non-intelligent material world; andman, who mediated between them.[11] Angels and man were endowed withfreedom. TheFall of Adam andLucifer were historic facts which were possible, though not necessary.[11] Baader considered the angels to have fallen through a desire to ascend to equality with God (i.e.,pride) and man through permitting himself to sink to the level of nature (via thevarious bodily sins).[11] Baader considered that the world as we know it—withtime,space, andmatter—only began after the fall of mankind and was created as a gift from God permitting humanity the opportunity forredemption.[11] Baader developed theories ofphysiology andanthropology over a number of works based upon this understanding of the universe, but in the main coincides with the ideas of Böhme.[11] Principally, he traces the adverse effects of varioussins and advocates the restoration of natural harmonies by its removal.[11]
His system ofethics rejects the idea that obedience to moral laws alone (as inKantianism) is enough. Instead, though humanity has lost the ability to accomplish this on its own, it is necessary to realize and participate in our place in the divine order.[11] Asgrace is required for such a realization, no ethical theory neglecting sin andredemption is satisfactory or even possible.[11]Mere works are never sufficient, butChrist's healing virtue must be received, chiefly throughprayer and thesacraments of the church.[15]
Baader was regarded as among the greatest speculative theologians of 19th-centuryCatholicism and influenced, among others,Richard Rothe,Julius Müller, andHans Lassen Martensen.[16]
Baader argued that two things were requisite in thestate: common submission to the ruler (without which there would becivil war orinvasion) and inequality of rank (without which there would be noorganization).[16] As Baader considered God alone to be the true ruler of mankind, he argued that loyalty to a government can be secured or given only when it was truly Christian;[16] he opposeddespotism,socialism,liberalism equally.[16] Hisideal state was a civil community ruled by theCatholic Church, whose principles opposed both passive and irrationalpietism and the excessively rational doctrines ofProtestantism.[16]
One of Baader's central ideas is his concept ofandrogyny:
The Androgyne is the harmonious fusion of the sexes, resulting in a certainasexuality, a synthesis which creates an entirely new being, and which does not merely juxtapose the two sexes 'in an enflamed opposition' as thehermaphrodite does.
Following the literal wording of the first ofGenesis'stwo accounts of the creation of man, Baader says that Man was originally an androgynous being. Neither man nor woman is the "image and likeness of God" but only the androgyne. Both sexes are equally fallen from the original divinity of the androgyne. Androgynism is man's likeness to God, his supernatural upsurge. Hence it follows that sexes must cease and vanish. From these positions Baader interpreted the sacrament of marriage as a symbolic restitution of angelic bisexuality:
The secret and the sacrament of true love in the indissoluble bond of the two lovers, consists in each helping the other, each in himself, towards the restoration of the androgyne, the pure and whole humanity.
Ultimately Christ's sacrifice will make possible a restoration of the primal androgyny. Baader believed that primordial androgyny would return as the world neared its end.[17]
Several years after his death, Baader's works were collected and edited by a number of his disciples. This was published in 16 volumes atLeipzig between 1851 and 1860, organized by topic.[18] Vol. I dealt withepistemology, Vol. II withmetaphysics, Vol. III withnatural philosophy, Vol. IV withanthropology, Vols. V & VI withsocial philosophy, Vols. VII through X withphilosophy of religion, Vol. XI with Baader'sdiaries, Vol. XII with his commentaries on St-Martin, Vol. XIII with his commentaries on Böhme, Vol. XIV withtime, and Vol. XV with his biography and correspondence.[18] Vol. XVI contained an index to the others, as well as an able sketch of his system byLutterbeck.[16] Valuable introductions by the editors are prefixed to the several volumes.[16]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Giles, Peter (1911), "Baader, Franz Xaver von", inChisholm, Hugh (ed.),Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 3 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 87–88
