Subjectivity and Irreligion

Kant's take on the relationship between humanity and divinity is more complex and less assured than that to be found in most modern philosophers and apologists. The author traces this uneasy truth, or troubling notion, in the works of Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. This book asks specific philosophical questions about the underlying structure of Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche's 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 ignored frequently this tradition. Matthew Ray concludes that Kant's moral theology is largely undersupported; Schopenhauer's metaphysical and ethical atheism is flawed in several areas; and Nietzsche's 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 God's existence remains characteristically unresolved in post-Kantian philosophy.