J P. Lawrence, "Schelling: Philosopher of Tragic Dissonance" (Summary)

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling was a philosopher who emerged as fully formed as Mozart in his early childhood. He made a significant distinction between negative philosophy, which has its source in pure reason, and positive philosophy, which draws its insights from art, literature, and religious scriptures of all ages and traditions. Schelling's "nature mysticism" was influenced by his appreciation for Protestant mystics such as Bengel and Oetinger. He later accorded natural language apriority to the concept, asserting that the "Book of Nature" is the deepest source of positive philosophy.

Schelling's capacity to resurface in astonishingly diverse ways reflects the kind of genius that gives rise to inspiration rather than imitation. Heidegger regarded Schelling as "more profound" than Hegel, but presumably not more "important." Eric Voegelin went even further, effectively according him a rank equalled or surpassed only by Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas.

Schelling, Hegel, and Hölderlin were in full agreement that philosophical thinking demanded the boldest possible denial of orthodoxy and the capacity to envision the approaching "Kingdom of God." What distinguished the three young thinkers from Fichte was a decisively this-worldly emphasis that embraced nature as fully as history.

Schelling's earliest phase is usually described as a purely Fichtean form of subjective idealism. However, Schelling insisted that the "I," when invoked as the "principle of philosophy," has to be understood on the basis of its transreflective origin. He agreed with Fichte that the idealist's faith in freedom and the realist's attachment to nature both generate equally viable metaphysical systems.

Schelling's real endeavor was to understand freedom in its finite nature, which means in its relationship to nature. He anticipated Heidegger as the prophetic voice that warns of tragedy's renewal.

Friedrich Schelling, a German philosopher, was renowned for his contributions to the philosophy of nature and his exploration of the unconscious. He believed that freedom arises from an unconscious origin and that life is suffered before it is lived. Schelling's work, particularly his poem "Epikurische Glaubensbekenntnis Heinz Widerporstens," challenged conventional Christianity and advocated for a pantheistic religiosity that finds God in various forms.

Schelling's philosophy was not just about expanding Fichte's idealism but also about uncovering the preconscious origins of the self, which would account for his profound sense of destiny. His ideas about tragedy and the concept of the unconscious are deeply intertwined, as he believed that nature speaks more intelligibly when understood in a reflective way.

Schelling's speculative metaphysics of nature was influenced by empirical observations and forces of expansion and contraction. He believed that the cosmic "breathing" that gives life to nature as a whole is concretely expressed in natural polarities, such as electric and magnetic forces animating chemical processes, sexual polarity that underlies organic reproduction, and the internal division between sensation and irritation within animal life.

Schelling's view was dynamic and anticipated important features of post-Naturphilosophian physics of the twentieth century. It restored the Platonic and Aristotelian view that nature has nothing "inert" within it but is the actualization of the slumbering potency of matter. The early Naturphilosophie advanced the view that matter itself is an always-wavering equilibrium of opposed forces.

Despite Schelling's objections to the Newtonian bias of most nineteenth-century natural science, there are still areas of conflict with some important new developments, such as Faraday's experimental confirmation of Oersted's electromagnetic theory. The Naturphilosophie must be understood as a sustained critique of modern science's mechanical presuppositions and its tendency to reduce the physical to the mathematical.

Schelling, a philosopher, opposed empirical sciences that focused on experience and metaphysical origin, believing that self-knowledge could serve as the basis for understanding reality. He introduced the notion of intellectual intuition, which he compared to a state of death. Schelling's work, The System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), is idealist in conception and aims to reveal unconscious productivity at work in humanity.

The system focuses on theoretical necessity, as knowledge theoretically determines the impossibility of changing it, followed by contrasting practical philosophy, emphasizing that nothing can truly be known apart from the world we actively shape. Schelling claims that art in general (not logic) is the proper organon of philosophy, as artistic creation involves a form of knowing that transcends both theoretical and practical reason.

In the System of Transcendental Idealism, nature ultimately prevails, and Schelling and Hegel sought the philosophical comprehension of the absolute. However, Schelling believed that reason is a powerful enough instrument to reveal its own limits, unlike Jacobi who believed in the unconditioned absolute and the need for faith.

Schelling's commitment to rationality led him to provide compelling arguments for the tragic view in philosophy, which he remained committed to even during his brief collaboration with Hegel (1801-1803). This period is often referred to as his "system of identity," but it is more appropriate to call it Naturphilosophie.

The dominant figure of the system is the image of magnetic polarity, which combines opposition with unity, as negative and positive poles attract rather than repel one another. The relationship between subject and object grounds the consciousness of reality, and the lower so consistently presupposes the higher that the full multiplicity of what exists can be understood as everywhere one and the same.

In conclusion, Schelling's commitment to rationality and his collaboration with Hegel marked the final and most impressive blossoming of Neoplatonism in the history of Western thought.

Neoplatonism is a philosophical approach that reconciles the deepest impulses of both rationalism and mysticism. It is characterized by the Unbedingte or unconditioned, primordial No-thing that contains reality within it and serves as the ontological ground for all of rationality. Schelling's philosophy, known as Naturphilosophie, celebrates the divinity of the universe and presents nature as the throbbing heart of an Aristotelian God. This philosophy forms the background for a philosophy of history that includes nature within it, resurrecting Schelling's deepest insights into the tragic nature of being as such.

Schelling's most difficult and characteristic thought is the barbaric principle of nature must itself be comprehended as something contained within God, as the ground of his very possibility. This philosophy of thought is a testament to the power of the human mind and the ability to understand the tragic nature of being.

In 1809, Schelling became the secretary of the Academy of Art in Munich, and his break with Hegel became permanent and irresolvable. He realized the fragility of the absolute and the dark and mysterious nature of the finite. In 1809, Schelling's last significant publication, the Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom, emphasized the importance of understanding human freedom in its finiteness as a specific form of human freedom.

F. W. J. Schelling had a profound impact on the philosophy of German idealism and the entire tradition of Christian theosophy. His main work, The Ages of the World, was a long narrative description of God's life, divided into "past, present, and future."

Schelling's hope for future reconciliation involves the redemption of nature as a whole, with his "heaven" being a world inhabited by translucent bodies. His theory of powers or "potencies" allows him to traverse this vast territory. Schelling's movement "preceded the world" and can be expressed in purely formal terms, symbolizing the primordial accident of existence and giving expression to his fundamental materialism.

Schelling's lectures, such as "On the Nature of Philosophy as Science," serve as a gateway into his last phase of his career. He believes that spiritual wisdom is a real possibility, but only in the form of knowing ignorance, which is associated with Socrates. Wisdom is Gelassenheit (releasement), which must ultimately extend to the religious belief in God.

Schelling's philosophy of history is more oriented around the future than around the past, and he looks forward to Nietzsche and Heidegger's talk of the "end of metaphysics" and the possibility of "a new beginning." His purpose was to renew philosophy by appropriating the foundational energy of a lost, but retrievable origin.

Schelling's last period of his career was controversial in his own time, but given the contemporary "clash of civilizations," this latest phase of his long career may be the most important for us today. The idea of philosophical religion offers the possibility of freeing religion into its essence, which lies beyond sectarian division and is ultimately a matter of spirit and understanding.