Baader, FRANZ XAVIER VON

Baader, FRANZ XAVIER VON, a distinguished German philosopher and theologian, born at Munich, March 27, 1765. After taking his degree in medicine, he decided to become a mining engineer, and in the course of his studies resided for four years in England. Here he became acquainted with both the mysticism of Boehme and the rationalism of Hume, the latter of which jarred terribly on his deep sense of the reality of religious truths. Indeed, he regarded all modern philosophy as atheistic in its tendencies, and the ethical autonomy of Kant, that man is in himself a rule of action, was particularly offensive to him. Baader's philosophical and professional researches were prosecuted simultaneously; and having risen to the post of superintendent-general of mines, he retired in 1820, having been ennobled. In 1826 he was appointed professor of Philosophy and Speculative Theology in the new university of Munich; and here he died, May 23, 1841.—Baader's philosophy draws its inspiration from the writings of Jacob Boehme (q.v.), and is essentially a theosophy, of which the notion of God is the fundamental idea, the divine nature its first problem. His system is based largely on the necessary attributes of God, and displays a devout, religious mind. He holds that the true ethical end is not obedience to a moral law, but a realisation of the divine life; and that as man, alienated from God, has lost the power to attain this, therefore no ethical theory which disregards the facts of sin and redemption can be satisfactory. In developing his system he falls into mystical symbolism, and this, along with his obscure aphorisms, renders his writings, which are not systematic, at times very difficult to understand. He is certainly, however, the greatest speculative theologian of modern Catholicism, and in Germany his influence has extended widely beyond his own church. His complete works have been edited by Hoffmann, and others of his followers (16 vols. Leip. 1850–60). See Pfeiderer's Philosophy of Religion (vol. ii. Eng. trans. 1887).