Ray Matthew Alun - Subjectivity and Irreligion

This book asks specific philosophical questions about the underlying structure of Kants, Schopenhauers and Nietzsches thoughts on atheism and agnosticism; thoughts that represent one of the most concerted attacks on monotheistic religion in modern philosophy. Yet commentators interested in philosophical atheism have frequently ignored this tradition.

Matthew Ray concludes that Kants moral theology is largely undersupported; Schopenhauers metaphysical and ethical atheism is flawed in several areas; and Nietzsches naturalistic attack on Christianity is only partially successful. Taking a critical stance toward the atheistic orthodoxy in modern philosophy, Ray argues that the question of Gods existence remains characteristically unresolved in post-Kantian philosophy.

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MATTHEW ALUN RAY
University of Bristol, UK

First published 2003 by Ashgate Publishing

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Ray, Matthew Alun

Subjectivity and irreligion: atheism and agnosticism in Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. (Ashgate new critical thinking in philosophy)
1. Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804. 2. Schopenhauer, Arthur, 1788-1860 3. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 18441900 4. Atheism 5. Agnosticism 6. Irreligion 7. Subjectivity
I. Title
149.7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ray, Matthew Alun, 1972

Subjectivity and irreligion: atheism and agnosticism in Kant, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche / Matthew Alun Ray.
p. cm. - (Ashgate new critical thinking in philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7546-3456-6 (alk. paper)

1. Atheism-History. 2. Agnosticism-History. 3. Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804-Religion. 4. Schopenhauer, Arthur, 1788-1860-Religion. 5. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900-Religion. I. Title. II. Series.

B808 .R39 2003
211.8-dc21

2002038380

ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-3456-0 (hbk)

Only by accepting the physical presence of night have we come to accept it morally.
Lautramont, Posies

Thus the lord indulges his slaves and even enjoys their insolence.
Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Devorah Baum (still engaged by the ethical imperative), Kaupo Kand and Antonio Gomez all in some way helped contribute to what I wanted to say here, as did Birna Birnadottir, who in addition once translated some of my work on Nietzsche into Icelandic in a manner I knew was entirely trustworthy. Dr Andrew Pyle at Bristol looked over my work on Kant and Dr P. Poellner supervised my PhD at Warwick; I am grateful to both of them and to my PhD examiners: Dr S. Gardner and Professor K. Ansell-Pearson. Certain of the discerning queries each of them raised no doubt remain unanswered here. I should also like to acknowledge the support of Beth Perry, Louis Gasparro, Tetsuya Taguchi, Gwyn Topham, David Fern and Angela Baum and to say a heartfelt diolch to Adrian Wyn Williams, Dr Henry Morriss, Craig Holden, Ifans Mawr, Gemma Louise, Stephen Cheeke and of course Tad a Mam.

I would also like to acknowledge that limited and programmatic parts of my first chapter on Nietzsche were recently published, in translation, in the Icelandic journal of philosophy, Hugur: Tmarit Um Heimspeki (199899) under the title: Tilraun um styrk: Trin tlkunarslarfrdi Nietzsches, pp. 5065 (An Experiment in Strength: An Outline of Nietzsches Religious Metapsychology, in Mind: A Journal of Philosophy (199899) pp. 5065). Thanks are due to the editors for letting me reprint it, in a modified form, here.