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

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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.