Schriften über das ewige Leben der Seele

With an introduction by Paola Rumore

The “Beweis daß die menschliche Seele ewig lebt” and the later “Vertheidigungen” present Georg Friedrich Meier’s fundamental contribution to one of the most prominent philosophical debates of 18th-century Germany. In these writings Meier revises the main claims of his earlier “Gedancken von dem Zustande der Seele nach dem Tode” (1746), where he had rejected the validity of any rational demonstration of the immortality of the soul. The work immediately provoked a lively and, in many cases, polemical discussion; Meier was accused of having provided ‘theoretical legitimacy’ or ‘patronage’ to materialists, since he claimed that their denial of immortality did not necessarily imply atheism or a threat to morality. Alongside such indignant reactions, some contemporaries welcomed Meier’s implicit invitation to improve the arguments of rational psychology; among them his friend Lange proposed a mathematical demonstration of immortality that convinced Meier to return to the subject. The “Beweis” and “Vertheidigungen” reprinted here present Meier’s new position on the issue. A position which, while revising the earlier conviction about the inability of reason to demonstrate the immortal nature of the soul, should not be understood as a mere retraction. Rather, it represents a further step forward in Meier’s reflection on the role of philosophy in its relationship with faith in the age of the Enlightenment.