Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997.
Do you need
volunteer, community service, work, military or court hours?
|
|
Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997.
|
|
Click here and add this page to your favorites!
|
Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: RAY-RHU |
|
|
REIMARUS, HERMANN SAMUEL (1694-1768) , German philosopher and man of letters, was born at Hamburg, on the and of December 1694. He was educated by his father and by the famous scholar J. A. Fabricius, whose son-in-law he subsequently became. He studied theology, ancient languages, and philosophy at Jena, became Privatdozent in the university of Wittenberg in 1716, and in 172021 visited Holland and England. In 1723 he became rector of the high school atWismar in Mecklenburg, and in 1727 professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages in the high school of his native city. This post he held till his death, though offers of more lucrative positions were made to him. His duties were light, and he employed his leisure in the study of philology, mathematics, philosophy, history, political economy
house
Reimarus's reputation as a scholar rests on the valuable edition of Dio Cassius (175052) which he prepared from the materials collected by J. A. Fabricius. He published a work
original
MS. is in the Hamburg town library; a copy was made for the university library of Gottingen, 1814, and other copies are known to exist. In addition to the seven fragments published by Lessing, a second portion of the work
The standpoint of the Apologie is that of pure naturalistic deism. Miracles and mysteries are denied, and natural religion is put forward as the absolute contradiction of revealed. The essential truths of the former are the existence of a wise and good Creator and the immortality of the soul. These truths are discoverable by reason, and are such as can constitute the basis of a universal religion. A revealed religion could never obtain universality, as it could never be intelligible and credible to all men. Even supposing its possibility, the Bible does not present such a revelation. It abounds in error as to matters of fact, contradicts human experience, reason and morals, and is one tissue of folly, deceit, enthusiasm, selfishness and crime. Moreover, it is not a doctrinal compendium, or catechism, which a revelation would have to be. What the Old Testament says of the worship of God is little, and that little worthless, while its writers are unacquainted with the second fundamental truth of religion, the immortality of the soul. The design of the writers of the New Testament, as well as that of Jesus, was not to teach true rational religion, but to serve their own selfish ambitions, in promoting which they exhibit an amazing combination of conscious fraud and enthusiasm. It is important, however, to remember that Reimarus attacked atheism with equal effect and sincerity, and that he was a man of high moral character, respected and esteemed by his contemporaries.Modern estimates of Reimarus may be found in the works of B. Punjer, O. Pfleiderer and H. Hoffding. Punjer states the position of Reimarus as follows: " God is the Creator of the world, and His wisdom and goodness are conspicuous in it. Immortality is founded upon the essential nature of man and upon. the purpose of God in creation. Religion is conducive to our happiness and alone brings satisfaction . Miracles are at variance with the divine purpose; without miracles there could be no revelation " (Punjer, History of Christian Philosophy of Religion since Kant, Engl. trans., pp. 550-57, which contains an exposition of the Abhandlungen and Schutzschrift). Pfleiderer says the errors of Reimarus were that he ignored historical and literary criticism, sources, date, origin, &c., of documents, and the narratives were said to be either purely divine or purely human. He had no conception of an immanent reason (Philosophy of Religion, Eng. trans., vol. i. p. 102). H. Hoffding also has a brief section on the Schutzschrift, stating its main position as follows: " Natural religion suffices; a revelation is therefore superfluous. Moreover, such a thing is both physically and morally impossible. God cannot interrupt His own work by miracles; nor can He favour some men above others by revelations which are not granted to all, and with which it is not even possible for all to become acquainted. But of all doctrines that of eternal punishment is most contrary, Reimarus thinks, to true ideas of God, and it was this point which first caused him to stumble " (History of Modern Phil., Eng. trans. (1900), vol. ii. pp. 12, 13).See the " Fragments " as published by Lessing, reprinted in vol. xv. of Lessing's Werke, Hempel's edition; D. F. Strauss, H. S. Reimarus and seine Schutzschrift fur die verniinftigen Verehrer Gottes (1862, 2nd ed. 1877); Charles Voysey, Fragments from Reimarus (London, 1879) (a translation of the life of Reimarus by Strauss, with the second part of the seventh fragment, on the " Object of Jesus and his Disciples ") ; the Lives of Lessing by Danzel and G. E. Guhrauer, Sime, and Zimmern; Kuno Fischer, Geschichte der neuern Philosophie (vol. ii. pp. 75972, 2nd ed. 1867) ; Zeller, Geschichte der deutschen Philosophie (2nd ed., 1875, pp. 24346). End of Article: REIMARUS, HERMANN SAMUEL (1694-1768) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/RAY_RHU/REIMARUS_HERMANN_SAMUEL_1694_1.html"> REIMARUS, HERMANN SAMUEL (1694-1768) </a> |
|
|
(Previous) REIGATE |
(Next) REIMS |
|
Sponsored Advertisements