Sensibilità e critica della religione

Michel Henry, Feuerbach e il problema del materialismo

Abstract

Although the philosophies of Michel Henry and Feuerbach share the same need to rethink the legacy of Hegelianism and to reverse its idealism, their results are radically opposite. However, the reference to their respective historical contexts is insufficient to explain the divergence between these two ways of understanding materialism, its concept, and its task. While not ignoring contextual differences, the paper aims to clarify the main theoretical reasons for this discrepancy. Thus, the paper will first reconstruct the eminently phenomenological meaning that Henry attributes to Hegel’s idealism. On this basis, the key elements of Henry’s critique of Feuerbach’s so-called “anti-idealism” will be discussed. The paper will therefore focus on the different conceptions, in Henry and Feuerbach, of the essence of sensibility, on which the divergent interpretations of religion depend. On the one hand, the discussion of the aporias in the Feuerbachian conception of sensibility will allow us to understand the general meaning of Henry’s rehabilitation of religion. On the other hand, the opposition to Feuerbach will make it possible to highlight some critical points regarding Henry’s “philosophy of Christianity”.