SOURCE: Taylor, Rodney. “Ludwig Feuerbach on Being as Death.” Michigan Germanic Studies 19, no. 1 (spring 1993): 46-61.

In the following essay, Taylor traces the influence of Spinozan metaphysics on the conception of death outlined in Feuerbach's treatise Thoughts on Death and Immortality.

I.

In a late essay, Max Scheler points to the vast influence of Benedictus de Spinoza (1632-1677) on the thought and literature of German-speaking countries during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.¹ Echoing Scheler's view, Wulf Koepke stresses that important aspects of this influence have received inadequate scholarly attention.² This assessment is especially accurate with regard to the young Ludwig Feuerbach's Gedanken über Tod und Unsterblichkeit, aus den Papieren eines Denkers: a brilliantly original work of metaphysics that also exhibits a high degree of literary excellence. Since the nineteenth century, several scholars have pointed to the importance of Spinozan metaphysics for the young Feuerbach, emphasizing that various fundamental aspects...