Editing Franz Xaver von Baader (section)

==Philosophy==
Baader frequently wrote in obscure [[aphorism]]s or mystical symbols and analogies.{{sfn|Adamson|1878|p=174}}<ref>{{citation |last=Zeller |first=Eduard |author-link=Eduard Zeller |title=Ges. d. deut. Phil. |pages=732, 736 |language=de}}</ref> His doctrines are mostly expounded in short detached essays, in comments on the writings of Böhme and St-Martin, or in his extensive correspondence and journals.{{sfn|Giles |1911|p=88}} Baader starts from the position that human reason by itself can never reach the end at which it aims and maintains that we cannot throw aside the presuppositions of faith, church, and tradition. His point of view may be compared to [[Scholasticism]], since like the Scholastics he believed that theology and philosophy are not opposed but that reason has to make clear the truths given by authority and revelation.{{sfn|Adamson|1878|p=174}} In his attempts to draw the realms of faith and knowledge still closer, however, he approaches the mysticism of [[Meister Eckhart]], [[Paracelsus]], and Böhme.{{sfn|Adamson|1878|p=174}} Our existence depends upon God's cognition of us.{{sfn|Giles |1911|p=88}}{{refn|group=lower-alph|In [[Latin]]: ''{{lang|la|cogitor ergo cogito et sum}}''. ("I am thought of, therefore I think and am."){{sfn|Giles |1911|p=88}} See also [[Descartes]]'s ''[[cogito ergo sum]]''.}} All self-consciousness is at the same time God-consciousness, and all knowledge is knowing with, consciousness of, or participation in God.{{sfn|Adamson|1878|p=174}}