Adam Weishaupt

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox philosopher Johann Adam Weishaupt (Template:IPA; 6 February 1748 – 18 November 1830)<ref name="ADB Vol. 41">Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 41, p. 539.</ref><ref name="Engel 1906">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="van Dülmen 1975">van Dülmen, Richard. Der Geheimbund der Illuminaten. Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 1975.</ref><ref name="Stauffer 1918">Stauffer, Vernon. [New England] and the Bavarian Illuminati. Columbia University, 1918.</ref> was a German philosopher, professor of civil law and later canon law, and founder of the Bavarian Illuminati.

Early life

Adam Weishaupt was born on 6 February 1748 in Ingolstadt<ref name="ADB Vol. 41"/>Template:Sfn in the Electorate of Bavaria. Weishaupt's father Johann Georg Weishaupt (1717–1753) diedTemplate:Sfn when Adam was five years old. After his father's death he came under the tutelage of his godfather Johann Adam von Ickstatt<ref>Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 13, pp. 740–741.</ref> who, like his father, was a professor of law at the University of Ingolstadt.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Ickstatt was a proponent of the philosophy of Christian Wolff and of the Enlightenment,<ref>Hartmann, Peter Claus. Bayerns Weg in die Gegenwart. Regensburg: Pustet, 1989. 262. Also, Bauerreiss, Romuald. Kirchengeschichte Bayerns. Vol. 7. St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1970. 405.</ref> and he influenced the young Weishaupt with his rationalism. Weishaupt began his formal education at age seven<ref name="ADB Vol. 41"/> at a Jesuit school. He later enrolled at the University of Ingolstadt and graduated in 1768Template:Sfn at age 20 with a doctorate of law.Template:Sfn In 1772Template:Sfn he became a professor of law after conversion to Protestantism.<ref name="Ben-Menahem 2009 p. 2057">Template:Cite book</ref> The following year he married Afra SausenhoferTemplate:Sfn of Eichstätt.

After Pope Clement XIV's suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, Weishaupt became a professor of canon law,<ref>Template:Harvnb. Also, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 41, p. 540.</ref> a position that was held exclusively by the Jesuits until that time. In 1775 Weishaupt was introducedTemplate:Sfn to the empirical philosophy of Johann Georg Heinrich Feder<ref>Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Vol. 6, pp. 595–597.</ref> of the University of Göttingen. Both Feder and Weishaupt would later become opponents of Kantian idealism.<ref>Beiser, Frederick C. The Fate of Reason. Harvard University Press, 1987. 186–88.</ref>

Foundation of the Illuminati

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On 1 May 1776 Johann Adam Weishaupt founded the "Illuminati" in the Electorate of Bavaria. Initially, Illumination was designated for a group of outstanding and enlightened individuals in society. Indeed, the word was adapted from a Latin root, Iluminatus, which directly translates to "enlightened." He also adopted the name of "Brother Spartacus" within the order. Even encyclopedia references vary on the goal of the order, such as Catholic Encyclopedia (1910) saying the Order was not egalitarian or democratic internally, but sought to promote the doctrines of equality and freedom throughout society;<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia">Catholic Encyclopedia: Illuminati,</ref> while others such as Collier's have said the aim was to combat religion and foster rationalism in its place.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Illuminati was formed with the vision of liberating humans from religious bondage and undermining corrupted governments.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The actual character of the society was an elaborate network of spies and counter-spies. Each isolated cell of initiates reported to a superior, whom they did not know: a party structure that was effectively adopted by some later groups.<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia" />

Weishaupt was initiated into the Masonic lodge "Theodor zum guten Rath", at Munich in 1777. His project of "illumination, enlightening the understanding by the sun of reason, which will dispel the clouds of superstition and of prejudice" was an unwelcome reform.<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia" />Template:Failed verification He used Freemasonry to recruit for his own quasi-masonic society, with the goal of "perfecting human nature" through re-education to achieve a communal state with nature, freed of government and organized religion. Presenting their own system as pure masonry, Weishaupt and Adolph Freiherr Knigge, who organized his ritual structure, greatly expanded the secret organization.<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia" />

Contrary to Immanuel Kant's famous dictum that Enlightenment (and Weishaupt's Order was in some respects an expression of the Enlightenment Movement) was the passage by a man out of his 'self-imposed immaturity' through daring to 'make use of his own reason, without the guidance of another,' Weishaupt's Order of Illuminati prescribed in great detail everything which the members had obediently to read and think so that Dr. Wolfgang Riedel has commented that this approach to illumination or enlightenment constituted a degradation and twisting of the Kantian principle of Enlightenment.<ref>Dr. Wolfgang Riedel, 'Aufklaerung und Macht', in Die Weimarer Klassik und ihre Geheimbuende, ed. by W. Mueller-Seidel and W. Riedel, Koenigshausen und Neumann, 2002, p. 112</ref> Riedel writes:

' The independence of thought and judgment required by Kant ... was specifically prevented by the Order of the Illuminati's rules and regulations. Enlightenment takes place here, if it takes place at all, precisely under the direction of another, namely under that of the "Superiors" [of the Order].<ref>Dr. Wolfgang Riedel, Die Weimarer Klassik und ihre Geheimbuende, 2001, p. 112</ref>

Weishaupt's radical rationalism and vocabulary were not likely to succeed. Writings that were intercepted in 1784 were interpreted as seditious, and the Society was banned by the government of Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria, in 1784. Weishaupt lost his position at the University of Ingolstadt and fled Bavaria.<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia" />

Activities in exile

He received the assistance of Duke Ernest II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1745–1804), and lived in Gotha writing a series of works on illuminism, including A Complete History of the Persecutions of the Illuminati in Bavaria (1785), A Picture of Illuminism (1786), An Apology for the Illuminati (1786), and An Improved System of Illuminism (1787). Adam Weishaupt died in Gotha on 18 November 1830.<ref name="ADB Vol. 41"/><ref name="Engel 1906"/><ref name="van Dülmen 1975"/><ref name="Stauffer 1918"/> He was survived by his second wife, Anna Maria (née Sausenhofer), and his children Nanette, Charlotte, Ernst, Karl, Eduard, and Alfred.<ref name="Engel 1906"/> His body was buried next to that of his son Wilhelm, who preceded him in death (in 1802), at Friedhof II der Sophiengemeinde Berlin, a Protestant cemetery.

After Weishaupt's Order of Illuminati was banned and its members dispersed, it left behind no enduring traces of influence, not even on its own erstwhile members, who went on to develop in quite different directions.<ref>Dr. Eberhard Weis in Die Weimarer Klassik und ihre Geheimbünde, edited by Professor Walter Müller-Seidel and Professor Wolfgang Riedel (Königshausen und Neumann, 2003), 100–101.</ref>

Assessment of character and intentions

File:Illuminaten397.jpg

Death mask of Adam Weishaupt

Weishaupt's character and intentions have been variously assessed. Some took a negative view, such as Augustin Barruel, who despite writing that Weishaupt's goals were that "Equality and Liberty, together with the most absolute independence, are to be the substitutes for all rights and all property" saw this as more dangerous than beneficial,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and John Robison, who regarded Weishaupt as a 'human devil' and saw his mission as one of malevolent destructiveness. Others took a more positive view, including Thomas Jefferson, who wrote in a letter to James Madison that "Barruel’s own parts of the book are perfectly the ravings of a Bedlamite<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and considered Weishaupt to be an "enthusiastic Philanthropist" who believed in the indefinite perfectibility of man, and believed that the intention of Jesus Christ was simply to "reinstate natural religion, and by diffusing the light of his morality, to teach us to govern ourselves".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In his defence, Weishaupt wrote a Kurze Rechtfertigung meiner Absichten (A Brief Justification of my Intentions)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in 1787. Author Tony Page comments:

"Weishaupt’s plan was to educate Illuminati followers in the highest levels of humanity and morality (basing his teachings on the supremacy of Reason, allied with the spirit of the Golden Rule of not doing to others what one would not wish done to oneself), so that if Illuminati alumni subsequently attained positions of significance and power (such as in the fields of education and politics), they could exert a benevolent and uplifting influence upon society at large. His project was utopian and naively optimistic, and he himself was certainly not without flaws of character – but neither he nor his plan was evil or violent in and of themselves. It is one of the deplorable and tragic ironies of history that a man who tried to inculcate virtue, philanthropy, social justice and morality has become one of the great hate-figures of 21st-century 'conspiracy' thinking."<ref>Tony Page (translator and editor), Supplement to the Justification of My Intentions by Adam Weishaupt, Justice Publications, Bangkok, Amazon Kindle, 2014, p. 1</ref>

Works

Philosophical works

(1775) De Lapsu Academiarum Commentatio Politica.
(1786) Über die Schrecken des Todes – eine philosophische Rede.
- Template:In lang Discours Philosophique sur les Frayeurs de la Mort (1788). Gallica
(1786) Über Materialismus und Idealismus. Torino
(1788) Geschichte der Vervollkommnung des menschlichen Geschlechts.
(1788) Über die Gründe und Gewißheit der Menschlichen Erkenntniß.
(1788) Über die Kantischen Anschauungen und Erscheinungen.
(1788) Zweifel über die Kantischen Begriffe von Zeit und Raum.
(1793) Über Wahrheit und sittliche Vollkommenheit.
(1794) Über die Lehre von den Gründen und Ursachen aller Dinge.
(1794) Über die Selbsterkenntnis, ihre Hindernisse und Vorteile.
(1797) Über die Zwecke oder Finalursachen.
(1802) Über die Hindernisse der baierischen Industrie und Bevölkerung.
(1804) Die Leuchte des Diogenes.
(1817) Über die Staats-Ausgaben und Auflagen. Google Books
(1818) Über das Besteuerungs-System.

Works relating to the Illuminati

(1786) Apologie der Illuminaten, Template:ISBN.
(1786) Vollständige Geschichte der Verfolgung der Illuminaten in Bayern.
(1786) Schilderung der Illuminaten.
(1787) Einleitung zu meiner Apologie.
(1787) Einige Originalschriften des Illuminatenordens...
(1787) Nachtrage von weitern Originalschriften...
(1787) Kurze Rechtfertigung meiner Absichten.
(1787) Nachtrag zur Rechtfertigung meiner Absichten.
(1787) Apologie des Mißvergnügens und des Übels.
(1787) Das Verbesserte System der Illuminaten.
(1788) Der ächte Illuminat, oder die wahren, unverbesserten Rituale der Illuminaten.
(1795) Pythagoras, oder Betrachtungen über die geheime Welt- und Regierungs-Kunst.

Source<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Works by Adam Weishaupt in English translation

(2008) Diogenes' Lamp, or an Examination of Our Present Day Morality and Enlightenment, translated by Amelia Gill, The Masonic Book Club. Internet Archive
(2015) The Secret School of Wisdom: The Authentic Rituals and Doctrines of the Illuminati, translated by Jeva Singh-Anand, edited by Josef Wäges and Reinhard Markner, London: Lewis Masonic, 447 pp., Template:ISBN
(2014) A Brief Justification of My Intentions: Casting Light on the Latest Original Writings, translated by Dr. Tony Page, Justice Publications, Amazon Kindle.
(2014) Supplement to the Justification of My Intentions, translated by Dr. Tony Page, Justice Publications, Amazon Kindle.

Notes

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