SOURCE: Lowie, Robert H. “Ludwig Feuerbach: A Pioneer of Modern Thought.” Liberal Review 2, no. 1 (February 1905): 20-31.

In the following essay, Lowie summarizes the key elements of Feuerbach's thought, and proclaims him to be a pivotal figure in modern philosophy.

It is no imputation on the English-speaking reader if the name of Feuerbach merely suggests a radical thinker, whose most popular work was translated by George Eliot, instead of some definite philosophical achievement. If any writer has had to suffer from unmerited neglect, it is Feuerbach. To the majority of his countrymen he has for a long time been hardly more than a name. His merciless scrutiny of conventional creeds precluded popular appreciation. In very different quarters his independence aroused similar animosity. He became the butt of those academic minds against whose arrogance, timidity and opportunism his life was a protest. Histories of philosophy degrade him to the rank...