Schelling invokes the creation of an aesthetic intuition to link both subjective and objective poles. Our consciousness becomes active and productive by Nature’s own unconscious power to affect us. This is Schelling’s romantic solution of synthesizing the conflict between the subjective and objective.
“Freedom is the alpha and the Omega of all Philosophy”[1]
The Following will be a critical, and philosophical biography of the German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775-1854). In order to get a good grasp of Schelling’s system of philosophy one would have to spend years reading several dense texts and plunging into a multitude of secondary sources. However, I would like to take this opportunity to not only explain who Schelling was and what his philosophy encompasses but take the reader on a journey through Schelling’s life. I don’t aim to touch all of Schelling’s works, but I hope to use a variety of his writings in order to paint a picture of the philosopher that I have spent years now studying.
1775 to 1792
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling was born in 1775 in Leonberg, Germany which is a small town on the outskirts of Stuttgart. Schelling’s parents, Joseph Friedrich Schelling, and Gottlobin Marie Cless had both come from well-educated families whose long lineage had participated in roles within the Lutheran church, such as pastors, and high officers of the church.[2] Schelling’s father was one of Germany’s brightest Hebrew scholars and had majored in ancient languages. This talent was passed on to the young Schelling who would quickly picked up this talent from his father.
By the age of 13 Schelling had mastered close to 6 languages and enjoyed his early years perusing his father’s extensive library.[3] At this time, the young Schelling, immersed himself in the works of Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Pindar, Leibniz, and Wolff; and greatly appreciated the company of his elders which provided a higher stimulus than that of his peers. Schelling’s father also passed on his enthusiastic appreciation of the Würtembergian Pietist tradition allowing Schelling to engage very early on, in the theosophy and the Protestant mysticism of Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (1702-82). Scholars have speculated that perhaps, it was indeed this very early introduction to Oetinger’s work that lead Schelling to the mystical writings of Jakob Boehme.[4]
When Schelling was just 15 years old he attended the Tübigen Stift (the seminary school) where for 5 intense years Schelling would engage in the study of both philosophy and theology. It was during this time that Schelling became closely acquainted with both Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) and Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843). After speaking with the Head Master, Schelling’s father saw to it that Schelling would room together with both Hegel and Hölderlin. The two were 5 years older than Schelling. The three would form a unique bond due to their love of philosophy and allegiance to the fervor of the French revolution; and new excitement over the popularity of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).[5] 1792 was a particularly important year for the young Schelling. At this time, Schelling was working on a master thesis that involved a thorough study on the origin of evil. The work was a critical and philosophical analysis of the third book of Genesis from the bible. This theme of the problem of evil would preoccupy Schelling for some time in the later years of his life and being the center of his philosophical work from 1804-1815.
1794 to 1796
Schelling’s very early experimental years were filled with quick publications in succession. After his Master’s thesis, Schelling published a dense commentary on Plato’s Timaeus in 1794. Following this essay, the heart of Schelling’s questioning began in his early work. Schelling, was searching for an ultimate ground or form of philosophy. This meant that he was seeking an absolute proposition or axiom to govern the scientific nature of philosophy. This absolute proposition would help him identify philosophy’s true content and form.[6] As Dalia Nassar states, that at this point Schelling’s academic work was deeply influenced by both Karl Leonhard Reinhold (1757-1823) and Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Both Reinhold and Fichte thought that Kant’s own critical philosophy lacked a decisive first principle and needed a strong foundation for its systematic application.[7]
In 1795 Schelling published one of his first lengthy essays entitled Of the I as Principle of Philosophy. The fruit of this essay was a converging of ideas spawned from the many influences surrounding the young Schelling at the time, especially that of Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819). The importance of this essay stems from Schelling realizing that in order for anyone to follow Kant clearly, what is needed is a stronger understanding of the self. According to Schelling, the highest principle is the self, and it cannot be conceived through a concept, for what is needed was a philosophy that could able to explain the unity of human experience and existence.[8] For Schelling, a concept is much too limited, precisely because it is the self that grasps that concept of reality. This becomes the early proof of why Schelling ends this essay with the absolute self, for it is unconditioned or unlimited in that it produces its own absolute reality.[9] Only a few months later Schelling would produce a highly polemical work entitled Philosophical Letters on Dogmatism and Criticism. This essay presents Schelling championing the view that philosophy must reveal our being. Schelling states …
“The main task of all philosophy consists of solving the problem of the existence of the World. All philosophers have worked at this solution, whatever different expression they have given to the problem. However, he who wants to conjure up the spirit of philosophy must conjure it up here”[10]
This lively text covers many diverse issues but its focal point is aimed at an investigation of both the critical philosophy of post-Kantian thought and the dogmatism of pre-critical philosophy.
As of 1796 drastic changes emerge in Schelling’s thought and these changes arise due to the latest natural science of Schelling’s time. Schelling was a private tutor after his seminary school for two young barons. He had been paid to help navigate these young men through their studies in University. It was these fruitful years of being a tutor and traveling from Stuttgart to Leipzig where Schelling quickly picked up the work of the German biologist and naturalist Carl Friedrich Keilmeyer (1765-1844). The Scientific discoveries at this time were abundant and everyone was in search of the laws that governed nature and the world. Schelling’s interest in the sciences expanded into vast areas, such as galvanism, and chemistry. These scientific pursuits heightened Schelling’s search to expand on Kant’s problematic metaphysics of nature.[11]
1797-1799
1797 saw the biggest change in Schelling’s early academic career. Schelling was intent on creating a philosophy of nature (naturphilosophie) one that was able to explain the dynamic structures of nature, while also expanding on the science of the age. Schelling published his first full length text Ideas for a philosophy of Nature in 1797. He explains that this work cannot be a full system, but like science, will emulate the experimental method, and must remain open for new advancements. The project begins by attempting to synthesize philosophy; as a natural history of the mind, with the system of nature. This means that philosophy must become genetic allowing for the enjoinment of our ideas with the diverse speculation of the world. Schelling states …
“The System of nature is at the same time the system of our mind and only now once the great synthesis has been accomplished does our knowledge return to analysis (to research and experiment).”[12]
So what exactly does this all mean? It means that nature and mind are connected like our two hands. While one is situated on the left, the other is situated on the right, yet, both hands are made of the same properties and still remain connected, while also being in different spatial locations. This genetic connection allows Schelling to affirm like our two hands that …
“Nature should be mind made visible, Mind the invisible nature. The final goal of the text is to show the linkage and connection between mind in us and nature outside of us.[13]
In 1798, only a year after Schelling’s Ideas text was published, he begins to produce several important essays that catch the eye of many important philosophers and scientists of the time. He produces his next work entitled On the World Soul. In this work Schelling explicates Nature as a universal organism. His main emphasis in this work is to reveal nature’s inner dynamics that are always in motion. By expanding on this process Schelling, hoped to get closer to understanding Nature’s own inner essence or concealed freedom. [14] This work attempts at highlighting the dynamic struggle of change in the whole of nature. These changes in nature arise through flux and metamorphosis. By seeking to understand these dynamic forces, Schelling was hoping to show that nature’s activity is composed of one universal and necessary development. The essay’s radical nature catches the eye of both Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Fredrich Schiller (1759-1805).
Friedrich Schiller and Fichte invited Schelling to come to Jena to meet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). Goethe was extremely impressed with Schelling, and the two began a long friendship. They spend countless hours speaking on optics and engaging in experiments.[15] Goethe would soon send Schelling an invitation to become a professor at the University of Jena. Schelling would accept this invitation becoming one the youngest professors to lecture in Germany (Prussia). He began to lecture in the early fall of 1798 and the following year he would publish a series of lectures for his students that were an in-depth study of his own mature nature philosophy. It was during this time that Schelling would become acquainted with the Jena Romantics and would form friendships with: Friedrich Schlegel (1772-1829), August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767-1845), Caroline Schlegel (1763-1809), Friedrich von Hardenberg [Novalis] (1772-1801), and Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834). The Jena Romantics would spend a great deal of time together reading poetry, speaking about the future of transcendental philosophy, and listening to Beethoven. They had all planned on forming a systematic journal together but this would never happen.
1799 saw the publication of Schelling’s First Outline of a System of the Philosophy of Nature. [16] This publication would bring him instant fame and his lectures at Jena where filled with students. During the same year the Jena Romantics would suffer a tremendous blow with Fichte being dismissed from the University of Jena on charges of atheism.
The 1799 text consisted of Schelling’s most thorough and systematic expression of nature. In it Schelling, began to map out the process of how nature would become the absolute subject. This involved the process of how the cosmos unfolds outside itself. Schelling’s main purpose was to show how nature arises out of the unconditioned or unlimited ground. The unconditioned, Schelling would explain, was nature’s highest expression of activity, for this activity was in a sense, being, since it creates in nature all of its active and possible productions.
Nature is grasped as a form of absolute productivity in an always constant motion of becoming. When this mode of absolute productivity is inhibited, the sheer mode of resistance from this outflow forms a product that tears away from the stream of Absolute productivity. Every product of nature bears within itself the infinite mark, since it once sprang forth from this absolute productivity. Throughout nature and all of life, there is always a constant struggle between two forces, the first is an expansive principle that shoots out forward, while the other force resists that movement and contracts, stopping the expansive stream from moving forward.
This all sounds too abstract, what we need is a good example that we can explore to break these concepts down and Schelling provides us with a clear example. Imagine a flowing stream, pushing forward. This outward flow is a good example of what Schelling means by the Absolute productivity of nature. But the stream’s flow is not endless, as the river twists and turns, the flow of the river’s momentum is slowed down by the rocks on the side of the river bed. These rocks on the side inhibit the momentum of the flow, slowing it down and allowing the parts of the water flow to break off and form tiny whirlpools that gain their own independence. The phenomena of the tiny whirlpools represent the creation of finite products produced from the absolute productivity of nature. They still contain the same water that was in the initial river flow but now they have an independent nature of their.
This unfolding process allows for nature to objectify itself in order, to construct the many dynamic layers or potencies of nature. These layers of nature are assembled together each appearing more complex than the next. The layers of nature unfold first through nature’s own dynamic forces of repulsion and attraction, and this leads to the creation of gravity, light and chemical interaction. The remainder of these elements interact and help form organic life. The final step in nature’s expressivity is the creation of the human being, and our becoming conscious. Through humanity, nature becomes conscious.
1800-1802
In 1800 Schelling published his most polished work. The System of Transcendental Idealism. Now there was a reason why Schelling’s philosophical thought moved from nature to transcendental idealism. According to Schelling, knowledge is broken down into two parts: everything that deals with the objective world is understood as nature, and everything that deals with the subjective world is concerned with the self and intelligence. In a sense, the subjective pole is identified with Transcendental Idealism and the objective pole, with Nature philosophy. The two forms of philosophy build two sides of Schelling’s whole system. However, both subjective and objective sides of knowledge are thoroughly connected.
Both of these poles demand the other and at the same time presuppose one another. So when Schelling makes objective knowledge, primary philosophy must start from the subjective pole and end with the objective. This method is incorporated through the nature philosophy while the opposite of this, is when the subjective is primary and absolute, philosophy begins at the objective pole and ends with the subjective. This method forms transcendental Idealism.
Both poles are needed in philosophy, however, they both have a different methodology. If we as philosophers are to gain any knowledge at all of the world around us, we must be able to show how both modes of knowledge (as the subjective and objective) can conform to one another. This proves to be a difficult task for Schelling, and his solution is to incorporate the power of art.
Schelling invokes the creation of an aesthetic intuition to link both subjective and objective poles. Our consciousness becomes active and productive by Nature’s own unconscious power to affect us.[17] This is Schelling’s romantic solution of synthesizing the conflict between the subjective and objective. The best way to understand this dialectic is to grasp how the power of art through sculpture, music, dance and painting affect us on many levels. What moves us in feeling the art work is this secret power that connects both aspects together in one unity.
The last phase of Schelling’s philosophy that we will seek to understand is his 1801 Presentation of My System of Philosophy. With the publication of this text, we move into Schelling’s identity philosophy, which was Schelling’s mature presentation of transcendental Idealism. Some scholars have called it Schelling’s second main phase through his fragmented philosophy, but to me, Schelling is still working through the same problems and questions, he has just readapted his method to grasping both Nature philosophy and Transcendental philosophy. When Schelling published this text in the journal of speculative physics he was already dealing with extremely harsh criticism because he had gone out of his way to defend his friend Fichte from the university’s conservative body. Schelling’s new motivation was to present a solid project that would express the totality of his thought. He states …
“For many years I sought to present the one philosophy that I know to be wholly true from two wholly different sides yet both as a philosophy of nature and as a transcendental philosophy. I now find myself impelled by the present situation of science to publicly bring forward sooner that I wish, that system that for me was the foundation of these different presentations and to make everyone interested in this matter”[18]
At this time, Schelling was immensely influenced by both Fichte and Spinoza. As a matter of fact, when he began writing the 1801 text, he had a copy of Spinoza’s Ethics right next to him as he wrote. In a way, the text does mirror Spinoza’s Ethics because Schelling employs a series of propositions and axioms to present his system. However, the influence of Fichte is quite telling. His system is now presented as a monistic system. Meaning that both mind and matter and all of reality are grounded as one system. Schelling presents his philosophy with three fundamental propositions.
First, like Spinoza, there is one single and indivisible substance, which we can say is identical with the whole universe, and at the same time, this substance does not transcend reason but is absolutely identical with the laws of reason, which Schelling will affirm by the proposition A=A.[19] This proposition A=A (subject=objective) is to be understood as the principle of identity, and this principle in Schelling’s new presentation expresses the whole, which is both the subjective and objective or the ideal and the real (the mental and the physical). Schelling’s text is divided into two parts. The first follows these three principles in order to flesh out the Identity philosophy (transcendental philosophy), while the second part takes up how nature philosophy can derive from these three principles.
1803-1804
In 1803, Schelling quickly found himself in a public scandal when it was finally revealed to the public that he had been actively in an affair with August Wilhelm Schlegel’s wife, Caroline Schlegel. The Jena years were finally over, and at this point, Schelling had lost most of his friends who were in the Jena romantic circle. After publishing his 1801 Presentation of My System, Fichte, and Schelling’s friendship would end a year later through a long exchange of polemical letters. Novalis had also passed away, and Fredrich Schlegel was making Schelling’s life extremely difficult for ruining his brother’s marriage, and of course, no one knew where Hölderlin was.
Goethe saw to it that Caroline and Schelling would be wed in 1803, and by April, Schelling was offered a new professorship in Würzburg. When Schelling arrived in 1804, he thought he would be welcomed with excitement to a new city and a new big university, but instead, he was met by the Bavarian authorities who were angry at Schelling’s radical educational reform. He was charged by the authorities and told to keep a low profile. At the same time, the majority of faculty at the university who were catholic began to protest Schelling’s writings and presence.[20] This is not the end of Schelling’s story but only the beginning of a new phase of his thought to come.
References and Footnotes
[1] Letter to Hegel, 4.2.1795 (Briefe von und an Hegel, Bd. I, 21) as cited in Matthews, 2011.
[2] Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph. von Schelling, Philosophical Inquiries into the Nature of Human Freedom Trans. James Gutmann ( La Salle, Illinois: Open Court, 1992), xi.
[3] Bruce Matthews, Schelling’s Organic Form of Philosophy: Life as the Schema of Freedom (Albany: State U of New York, 2011), 41.
[4] Sean J. McGrath. (2018). Friedrich Christoph Oetinger’s Speculative Pietism. The Official Journal of the North American Schelling Society
Volume 1, 145-163. https://journals.library.mun.ca/index.php/kabiri/article/view/1954/1522
[5] Bruce Matthews, Schelling: “A brief Biographical Sketch of the Odysseus of German Idealism.” In The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism Ed. Matthew C. Altman (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 440.
[6] Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, The Unconditional in Human Knowledge: Four Early Essays (1794-1796). Trans, Fritz Marti (Lewisburg, 1980, Bucknell University Press), 42.
Dalia Nassar, The Romantic Absolute: Being and Knowing in Early German Romantic Philosophy, 1795-1804 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2014), 162.
[8] Dale E. Snow, Schelling and the End of Idealism (Albany: State U of New York, 1996), 46.
[9] Dale E. Snow, Schelling and the End of Idealism (Albany: State U of New York, 1996), 47.
[10] Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, The Unconditional in Human Knowledge: Four Early Essays (1794-1796). Trans, Fritz Marti (Lewisburg, 1980, Bucknell University Press), 177.
[11] Bruce Matthews, Schelling: “A brief Biographical Sketch of the Odysseus of German Idealism.” In The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism Ed. Matthew C. Altman (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 440.
[12] Friedrich Wilhelm. Joseph von Schelling, Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature Trans Errol E. Harris and Peter Heath. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 30.
[13] Friedrich Wilhelm. Joseph von Schelling, Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature Trans Errol E. Harris and Peter Heath. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 41.
[14] David Farrel Krell, Contagion: Sexuality, Disease and Death in German Idealism and Romanticism. (Bloomington: Indiana UP: 1998), 75.
[15] Bruce Matthews, Schelling: “A brief Biographical Sketch of the Odysseus of German Idealism.” In The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism Ed. Matthew C. Altman (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 444.
[16] Bruce Matthews, Schelling: “A brief Biographical Sketch of the Odysseus of German Idealism.” In The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism Ed. Matthew C. Altman (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 445.
[17] Dalia Nassar, The Romantic Absolute: Being and Knowing in Early German Romantic Philosophy, 1795-1804 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2014), 217.
[18] Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, “Presentation of My System of Philosophy,” in The Philosophical Rupture Between Fichte and Schelling: Selected Texts and Correspondence (1800-1802) Trans Michael G. Vater and David W. Wood (Albany: State U of New York, 2012), 141.
[19] Frederick Beiser, German Idealism: The Struggle Against Subjectivism 1781-1801. (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2002), 554.
[20] Bruce Matthews, Schelling: “A brief Biographical Sketch of the Odysseus of German Idealism.” In The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism Ed. Matthew C. Altman (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 446.
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