RICHARD WHATMORE SCHELLING, F.W.J. (1775–1854)
RICHARD WHATMORE SCHELLING, F.W.J. (1775–1854)
F.W.J.Schelling’s philosophy stands between Fichte and Hegel, as a struggle against both. Fichte had renewed critical philosophy by doing away with the thing-in-itself and by asserting the primacy of the free ‘I am’. In the writings of his early youth, Schelling used Fichte’s theory of science to interpret and criticize Spinoza: Spinoza’s absolute substance is nothing other than the I. But a tension was visible right from the outset: the absolute I is mine, but it is also the Absolute as such, with all the characters of divinity. Hence the wavering between metaphysics and transcendental philosophy, a mark of Schelling’s entire intellectual journey. In the first phase of his philosophy (philosophy of nature), Schelling sought to legitimize the path from nature to spirit, in opposition to Fichte’s path from the I to nature, regarded as a mere object of representation. He used analogy as a tool for the extrapolation of empirical data borrowed from experience, arguing for the unity of all phenomena beyond the point where the power of mathematics gives out. Whereas physical science proceeds by general laws allowing for progress from one area of the real to another, this philosophy of nature considers nature as a dynamical, living totality that governs the action of opposite, mutually destructive forces. In the System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), Schelling went on to show the correspondence between the acts of intelligence and the moments of construction of matter. Furthermore, the ideal penetrates the real in two ways: in nature through the living organism, in spirit through the work of art. From 1801 Schelling developed the philosophy of identity. The Absolute is neither subject nor object, neither spirit nor nature, but the identity or indifference of both. The ‘potencies’ of the Absolute are defined by the excess of objectivity in nature, the excess of subjectivity in spirit, yet both nature and spirit are to
be understood as a ‘subject-object’ The philosophy of identity, which never leaves the Absolute (or Reason), tries to solve the problem (unsolved by Aristotle and abandoned by modern natural science) of the specific determination of beings via the idea of the
Entries A-Z 585
continuity of forms. Art is now the expression of the infinite in the finite; Schelling believed in the forthcoming birth of a new mythology, source of inspiration for the renewal of art. Of Human Freedom (1809) marks the break with the philosophy of identity. In it, Schelling abandoned the deductive method in favour of systematic narrative. A finite being cannot arise from the Absolute, and therefore it comes into being by means of an entirely free act. The will proper to human being aims at existing for itself, as a universe to itself: this is the origin of evil, which does not arise from the ground (Grund) of nature but from an enlightened will alien to universal love. The fall of human being is also the beginning of history, which is essentially a return to God (ground and existence coincide in God only). In the Ages of the World (1815) Schelling expanded from the becoming of nature and man to the becoming of God. In order for God to be, it must come from non-being (first potency); in opposition to this, God is the being who is, das Seyende (second potency); finally God is the union of being and non-being (third potency). Each of these potencies aims at being by rejecting the other two. This creates a cycle, which will end only by sacrifice in favour of a higher will, a will that wills nothing
and that belongs to no being— bergottheit. God is thus absolute freedom, free from all form of being. The matter of successive creative processes (nature, spirit, soul of the world) finds its origin in the renunciation of the three potencies. In his so-called Later Philosophy (1821–54), Schelling found in mythology and religion a confirmation of this theosophy. Interpreting mythology in terms of the history of human consciousness, he showed that while natural religion conceives God in its diverse potencies, Christianity is the revelation of the unity that overcomes them. Finally, philosophy leads to a fully spiritual religion. At the end of his career, Schelling distinguished between rational philosophy, or construction of what is possible, from ‘positive philosophy’, which starts from the pure fact of absolute freedom.
Parts
» Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Thought
» ANTI-COLONIAL MOVEMENTS AND IDEAS
» SIMON J.POTTER ARNOLD, MATTHEW (1822–87)
» S.JONES BERNSTEIN, EDUARD (1850–1932)
» THE BODY, MEDICINE, HEALTH AND DISEASE
» BONALD, LOUIS DE (1754–1840)
» PAMELA PILBEAM CARLYLE, THOMAS (1795–1881)
» CHATEAUBRIAND, FRANÇOIS RENÉ AUGUSTE (1768–1848)
» CHINESE THOUGHT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
» CIESZKOWSKI, AUGUST (1814–94)
» JOHN MORROW COMBE, GEORGE (1788–1858)
» ALAN R.KING COMTE, AUGUSTE (1798–1857)
» The conservative reaction to radical natural-rights theory
» French conservatives and the challenge of the revolutionary past
» Institutional continuity and intellectual and moral discontinuity in British conservatism
» JOHN MORROW CONSIDÉRANT, VICTOR (1808–93)
» CONSTANT, BENJAMIN (1767–1830)
» CLIVE E.HILL DEMOCRACY, POPULISM AND RIGHTS
» PAMELA PILBEAM DEWEY, JOHN (1859–1952)
» DILTHEY, WILHELM (1833–1911)
» DOSTOEVSKY, FEODOR (1821–81)
» CHERKASOVA DU BOIS, W.E.B. (1868–1963)
» Saint-Simon and Saint-Simonism
» Other forms of non-Marxian socialism
» GREGORY CLAEYS EMERSON, RALPH WALDO (1803–82)
» ENFANTIN, BARTHÉLEMY-PROSPER (1796–1864)
» Revolutions, citizenship and sexual difference
» Socialism, labour, evangelical reform and public speaking
» Women’s rights at mid-century: an international movements
» KATHRYN M.TOMASEK FEUERBACH, LUDWIG (1804–72)
» FOURIER, CHARLES (1772–1837)
» KARINE VARLEY FREUD, SIGMUND (1856–1939)
» GREGORY CLAEYS GANDHI, MOHANDAS K. (1869–1948)
» GARIBALDI, GIUSEPPE (1807–82)
» CHRISTOPHER DUGGAN GEORGE, HENRY (1839–97)
» GOBINEAU, JOSEPH COMTE DE (1816– 82)
» LYMAN TOWER SARGENT GREEN, T.H. (1836–82)
» EVELINA BARBASHINA HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE IDEA OF PROGRESS
» From conjectural history to the Whig interpretation of history
» The critique of the idea of progress
» HUMBOLDT, WILHELM, FREIHERR VON (1767–1835)
» TIM KIRK HUXLEY, T.H. (1825–95)
» CHRISTOPHER DUGGAN IMPERIALISM AND EMPIRE
» SIMON J.POTTER INDIAN THOUGHT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
» INDUSTRIALISM, POVERTY AND THE WORKING CLASSES
» INTELLECTUALS, ELITES AND MERITOCRACY
» Tanzimat and the Ottoman Empire
» Other responses to colonialism and modernity
» Opening of the country and the Meiji Restoration
» CHUSHICHI TSUZUKI JEFFERSON, THOMAS (1743–1826)
» JEVONS, WILLIAM STANLEY (1835–82)
» One person, many faces: an introduction to a resonant life
» Stages on Life’s Way: from aesthetic, via ethical, to religious
» Intermission: the Corsair affair
» KROPOTKIN, PIETR (1842–1921)
» LABRIOLA, ANTONIO (1843–1904)
» LAMARTINE, ALPHONSE DE (1790– 1869)
» Continental liberalism FRANCE
» GREGORY CLAEYS LIEBKNECHT, WILHELM (1826–1900)
» LOMBROSO, CESARE (1835–1909)
» MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON (1800–59)
» Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
» Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche
» GREGORY CLAEYS MAISTRE, JOSEPH DE (1753–1821)
» MALTHUS, THOMAS ROBERT (1766– 1834)
» MARSHALL, ALFRED (1842–1924)
» GREGORY CLAEYS MARX AND MARXISM
» The development of Marxism to 1914
» GREGORY CLAEYS MAURRAS, CHARLES (1868–1952)
» MEINECKE, FRIEDRICH (1862–1954)
» MICHAEL LEVIN MILL, JOHN STUART (1806–73)
» THE NATION, NATIONALISM AND THE NATIONAL PRINCIPLE
» CHRISTOPHER DUGGAN NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH (1844–1900)
» DAN STONE NOVELS, POETRY AND DRAMA
» The development of Owen’s thought after 1820
» The development of Paine’s thought
» DAVID GLADSTONE PARETO, WILFREDO (1848–1923)
» Alternatives to classical economics
» Utilitarianism and the marginal revolution
» ANTHONY BREWER PROUDHON, PIERRE-JOSEPH (1809– 65)
» ‘Psychology has a long past but a short history’
» ‘Time present and time past’: James’s Principles
» RANKE, LEOPOLD VON (1795–1886)
» Biblical criticism and moral critiques
» TIMOTHY LARSEN RENAN, JOSEPH-ERNEST (1823–1892)
» GEORGIOS VAROUXAKIS RICARDO, DAVID (1772–1823)
» ROMANTICISM, INDIVIDUALISM AND IDEAS OF THE SELF
» Individualism, individuality, the self and psyche
» From alienation to Romantic love
» Critique of Political Economy
» Nihilism, populism, anarchism and early Marxism
» Religious and moral developments in Russian literature and philosophy
» SAINT-SIMON, HENRI DE (1760–1825)
» SAY, JEAN-BAPTISTE (1767–1832)
» RICHARD WHATMORE SCHELLING, F.W.J. (1775–1854)
» SCHLEGEL, CARL WILHELM FRIEDRICH VON (1772–1829)
» CLIVE E.HILL SIEYÈS, EMMANUEL-JOSEPH (1748– 1836)
» RICHARD WHATMORE SIMMEL, GEORG (1858–1918)
» DAN STONE SISMONDI, JEAN-CHARLES-LÉONARD SIMONDE DE (1773–1842)
» Social Darwinism and politics
» Social Darwinism, secularism and religion
» MICHAEL LEVIN SOREL, GEORGES (1847–1922)
» SPENCER, HERBERT (1820–1903)
» CLIVE E.HILL STEWART, DUGALD (1753–1828)
» TIM KIRK STRAUSS, DAVID FRIEDRICH (1808–74)
» TAGORE, RABINDRANATH (1861–1941)
» S.JONES THEORIES OF EDUCATION AND CHARACTER FORMATION
» THEORIES OF LAW, CRIMINOLOGY AND PENAL REFORM
» JOHN PRATT THEORIES OF THE STATE AND SOCIETY: THE SCIENCE OF POLITICS
» THIERS, LOUIS-ADOLPHE (1797–1877)
» GEORGIOS VAROUXAKIS THOREAU, HENRY DAVID (1817–62)
» ALAN D.HODDER TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE (1805–59)
» EVELINA BARBASHINA TÖNNIES, FERDINAND (1855–1936)
» Middle and late nineteenth-century utopianism LIBERALISM, CONSERVATISM AND UTOPIANISM
» LATER NINETEENTH-CENTURY SOCIALISM
» GREGORY CLAEYS WASHINGTON, BOOKER T. (1856–1915)
» CLIVE E.HILL WEBER, MAX (1864–1920)
Show more