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Feuerbach’s “Pneumatische Wasserheilkunde”

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Breath of Proximity: Intersubjectivity, Ethics and Peace

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Abstract

In this chapter, we follow Feuerbach’s teaching on the elements of water (and air) and his original philosophy of sensibility. We interpret the role of water and air within Feuerbach’s “pneumatic water therapy” (pneumatische Wasserheilkunde). We interpret the role of the water in its capability to serve as a mediator between the newly invented ritual space of the human body itself. Just as in Christianity water plays a mediating role between our bodies and the Holy Spirit, in a philosophically ritualised sense it is precisely water that has a strong mediating role between the body/Nature and thought/sensibility (Sinnlichkeit). Feuerbach’s philosophy is interpreted as a key mediating stage between the classical German Idalism and new trends in philosophy (materialism, elements, breath, sensibility, corporeality).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Irigaray wrote three books devoted to the elements. The Marine Lover: on Nietzsche is devoted to Water, Elemental Passions is devoted to Earth, and Forgetting of Air in Martin Heidegger is devoted to Air. She had planned on writing a book devoted to Marx (devoted to Fire), but she has not written it as yet.

  2. 2.

    I quote in the original language: “Dasein ist das erste Sein, das erste Bestimmtsein” (Feuerbach 1904, 306). Wartofsky (1977, 377) adds here: “Heidegger’s debt to Feuerbach seems clear here.”

  3. 3.

    See my entry “Food in ancient Indian philosophy” (Škof 2014).

  4. 4.

    §28; see also §32 concerning the introduction of sensibility as reality.

  5. 5.

    The statement is from Fichte's work published in 1798, entitled: Das System der Sittenlehre nach der Prinizipien der Wissenschaftslehre (Fichte 1995, 218); see The Science of Ethics (Fichte 1907, 232f).

  6. 6.

    Cit. after Habermas (1995, 159), translation altered.

  7. 7.

    Here, Düsing is referring to the viewpoint and to the refinement of this orientation (see Fichte 1970, 386).

  8. 8.

    Hans Joas (1980, 53ff) pointed this out in his book about the evolution of Mead's thought, entitled Praktische Intersubjektivität.

  9. 9.

    Concerning Schopenhauer’s Materialism, see Drei Studien über Materialismus (Schmidt 1977; especially p. 51ff).

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  1. Science and Research Centre, University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia

    Lenart Škof

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Škof, L. (2015). Feuerbach’s “Pneumatische Wasserheilkunde”. In: Breath of Proximity: Intersubjectivity, Ethics and Peace. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9738-2_5

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