Abstract

Ludwig Feuerbach is mostly regarded as a secondary philosopher in the development of German thought. The traditional interpretations of his work focused on the criticism of religion and philosophy. This article defends that the critique of theology and speculative philosophy is not the exclusive purpose of Feuerbach’s philosophy, once that critique led to the development of a new philosophy [neue Philosophie]. This new concept and understanding of philosophy is related to the materialistic and anthropological approach of his work that expresses itself through the primacy of the sensible, that is, the acknowledgment of the importance of the sensibility [Sinnlichkeit], of the sensation [Empfindung], of the body [Leib], of the feelings [Gefühle] and the comprehension that the human beings are finite, natural and sensible beings. This article intends to elucidate why and how Feuerbach developed a new concept of philosophy, which was supposed, according to him, to take the place of religion, because it had within itself the “essence of religion”.