Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

1.1. Early Life and Education

Schelling was born on January 27, 1775, in Leonberg, a town then located in the Duchy of Württemberg (now part of Baden-Württemberg). His parents were Joseph Friedrich Schelling and Gottliebin Marie Cleß. His father was a Lutheran pastor, an Orientalist professor, and a supporter of Swabian Pietism. Schelling grew up in an intellectually stimulating and deeply religious household, which significantly influenced his early development. He exhibited precocious talent, becoming proficient in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew by his early teens.

From 1783 to 1784, Schelling attended the Latin school in Nürtingen, where he met Friedrich Hölderlin, who was five years his senior. Subsequently, he studied at the monastic school in Bebenhausen, near Tübingen, where his father served as chaplain. On October 18, 1790, at the remarkably young age of 15, Schelling was granted special permission to enroll at the Tübinger Stift, a seminary of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg, despite the normal enrollment age being 20. At the Stift, he shared a room with both Hegel and Hölderlin, and the three formed a close friendship. They were enthusiastic about the French Revolution and deeply interested in the new philosophical currents represented by Immanuel Kant, aspiring to careers in thought or literature rather than the ministry.

Schelling initially studied the Church Fathers and ancient Greek philosophers. His interest gradually shifted from Lutheran theology to philosophy. In 1792, he completed his master's thesis, titled Antiquissimi de prima malorum humanorum origine philosophematis Genes. III. explicandi tentamen criticum et philosophicum (A Critical and Philosophical Attempt to Explain the Ancient Philosophical View on the First Origin of Human Evils in Genesis III). In 1795, he finished his doctoral thesis, De Marcione Paulinarum epistolarum emendatore (On Marcion as emendator of the Pauline letters), under Gottlob Christian Storr. During this period, he began an intensive study of Kant and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, whose ideas profoundly influenced him. He also engaged in a significant discourse with the philosophical writer Jacob Hermann Obereit, Fichte's housemate, through letters and Fichte's journal (1796/97), discussing concepts like "interaction," "the pragmatic," and the philosophy of Leibniz.

In 1797, while working as a tutor for two aristocratic youths, Schelling visited Leipzig. He attended lectures at Leipzig University, where he developed a keen interest in contemporary physical studies, including chemistry and biology. He also traveled to Dresden, where he observed the art collections of the Elector of Saxony, which later informed his philosophy of art. During his six-week stay in Dresden in August 1797, Schelling met the brothers August Wilhelm Schlegel and Karl Friedrich Schlegel, as well as Caroline Böhmer (then married to August Wilhelm and later Schelling's wife), and Novalis.

1.2. Academic Career and Philosophical Development

Schelling's professional life was characterized by a dynamic evolution of his philosophical systems, moving through distinct academic periods and intellectual phases.

1.2.4. Berlin Period and Later Philosophy

Public attention was strongly drawn by hints of a new system from Schelling, which promised something more "positive," particularly in its treatment of religion, compared to the perceived limitations of Hegel's philosophy. The emergence of critical writings by David Friedrich Strauss, Ludwig Feuerbach, and Bruno Bauer, coupled with internal divisions within the Hegelian school, indicated a growing dissatisfaction with the dominant philosophy of the time. In Berlin, the stronghold of the Hegelians, there were attempts to officially invite Schelling to present his new system. This materialized in 1841 when Schelling's appointment as a Prussian privy councillor and member of the Berlin Academy granted him the right to deliver lectures at the Humboldt University of Berlin, a right he was specifically requested to exercise.

Among those who attended his lectures were notable figures such as Søren Kierkegaard (who found Schelling's talks "quite insufferable nonsense" and complained about their length), Mikhail Bakunin (who described them as "interesting but rather insignificant"), Jacob Burckhardt, Alexander von Humboldt (who never accepted Schelling's natural philosophy), future church historian Philip Schaff, and Friedrich Engels (who, as a partisan of Hegel, attended to "shield the great man's grave from abuse"). The inaugural lecture of his course was met with a large and appreciative audience. However, the animosity of his old foe, H. E. G. Paulus, intensified by Schelling's success, led to the surreptitious publication of a verbatim report of Schelling's lectures on the philosophy of revelation. Schelling was unsuccessful in his legal efforts to condemn and suppress this piracy, and he ceased delivering public lectures in 1845.

Schelling's later thought, particularly his "positive philosophy," was largely misunderstood by his contemporaries, and his Berlin lectures had very few regular attendees. Its significance would not be fully appreciated for nearly a century after his death.

1.3. Personal Life

Schelling's personal life was marked by significant relationships and personal losses. His first marriage was to Caroline Schlegel in 1803, following her divorce from August Wilhelm Schlegel. Their relationship was initially intense, but Caroline died in 1809, just before Schelling published his pivotal work, Philosophische Untersuchungen über das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit. Three years later, in 1813, Schelling married Pauline Gotter, a close friend of Caroline, with whom he found a faithful and enduring companionship. Schelling died on August 20, 1854, in Bad Ragatz, Switzerland, while seeking treatment for an illness, surrounded by his family.

2.1. Naturphilosophie

Schelling's Naturphilosophie (Philosophy of Nature) aimed to demonstrate the ideal as emerging from the real, viewing nature not merely as an object of human cognition but as a dynamic, living, and spiritual entity. He believed that the changes observed in experience lead to the conception of duality and the polar opposition through which nature expresses itself. In this system, nature is understood as "visible spirit, spirit as invisible nature." He also described nature as a "poem stored in a beautiful, secret manuscript" and the universe as "asleep like a wonderful bud."

Schelling's dynamic series of stages in nature include:

• Matter: Conceived as the equilibrium of fundamental expansive and contractive forces.
• Light: Encompassing subordinate processes such as magnetism, electricity, and chemical action.
• Organism: Characterized by component phases of reproduction, irritability, and sensibility.

Schelling initially adopted the concept of self-organization from Kant's Critique of Judgment to explain the reproduction of organisms. However, he expanded this concept to include the original emergence of life itself, as well as the emergence of new species and genera. He intended this to be a comprehensive theory of natural history, bearing similarities to modern theories of self-organization. The philosopher Marie-Luise Heuser-Keßler notably elaborated on these parallels, particularly in relation to Prigogine's work, suggesting Schelling had "penetrated to the core of the physical problem of self-organization."

2.2. Philosophy of Identity

Schelling's Philosophy of Identity, or Identitätsphilosophie, posits the Absolute as an indifferent identity that unifies both spirit and nature. This concept suggests that everything is fundamentally identical and can be reduced to a single, universal spiritual force that is productive in both the realm of Nature and the realm of Spirit. The key distinction lies in the manifestation of this force: in Spirit, it is conscious intelligence, while in Nature, it is unconscious intelligence.

In his System des transcendentalen Idealismus (System of Transcendental Idealism, 1800), Schelling described transcendental philosophy and nature philosophy as complementary, postulating the unity of Nature and Spirit. He further elaborated this in Darstellung des Systems meiner Philosophie (Presentation of My System of Philosophy, 1801), asserting that nature and spirit differ only in their quantitative manifestation but are essentially identical. The absolute, for Schelling, was this indifference to identity, a concept he considered an essential philosophical subject. He introduced the idea of potenzen, or levels of complex organization, to describe the principles of this system.

This concept, however, became a point of contention with Hegel. Hegel criticized Schelling's notion of the Absolute as an immediate intuition, famously quipping that in Schelling's system, "all cows are black at night," implying a lack of differentiation. Hegel also criticized Schelling for merely starting with the Absolute without explaining how humans could achieve it, likening Schelling's approach to an idea that "bursts from a pistol." Schelling, in turn, struggled to maintain a balance between his abstract cosmological speculations and empirical scientific research, leading some to find his materialist arguments unconvincing.

2.3. Philosophy of Freedom

Schelling's Philosophische Untersuchungen über das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit und die damit zusammenhängenden Gegenstände (Philosophical Inquiries into the Essence of Human Freedom, 1809), often referred to as the Freiheitsschrift (Freedom Essay), marked a significant turning point in his philosophy. In this work, Schelling delves into the profound problem of evil and its relationship to human freedom and the nature of God.

Unlike his earlier views, where evil was seen as a mere appearance stemming from quantitative differences between the real and the ideal, in the Freiheitsschrift, evil is presented as something substantial and a positive possibility within human nature. Schelling argues that human freedom is truly meaningful only if it includes the capacity for both good and evil, placing humanity at the pinnacle of existence. This notion contrasts sharply with traditional Christian and Western philosophical views of freedom as the ability to choose only the good. He clearly paraphrased Kant's distinction between intelligible and empirical character, defining freedom as "a capacity for good and evil."

Schelling explored the theological implications of this idea, asserting that since nothing exists before or outside God, God must contain within himself the ground of his own existence. For Schelling, God is "Life," not merely Being, and this life involves an internal dynamic. Within God, there exists a "nature in God" - a part of God that is not God itself - which strives to conceal itself and stands in opposition to God's self-manifestation. This "ground" (Grund) within God represents a struggle between the aspiration to emerge and the power to remain hidden. God, through love, overcomes this internal conflict, allowing both God and creation to manifest. This same profound conflict, Schelling contends, reappears within human beings as the very possibility of freedom.

This later philosophy of freedom was significantly influenced by the thought of Jakob Böhme, which Schelling encountered through Friedrich Christoph Oetinger and Franz von Baader. Terms such as "nature in God," "ground," and "unground" (or "bottomless") are derived from Böhme's terminology. While Schelling maintained a favorable view of mystical thought, also noting its affinity with Neoplatonism (as seen in his Bruno), and even favorably introducing Emanuel Swedenborg's ideas in his unpublished dialogue Clara (1812), he did not fully endorse mysticism. He appreciated mystical thinkers for their ability to grasp pre-rational or non-rational realities that eluded purely rationalistic philosophy, but he also recognized the limitations of their expressions from a philosophical standpoint.

For Schelling, the opposition between necessity and freedom was no longer merely an ideal opposition that was indifferent in the Absolute, as in his earlier Identity Philosophy. Instead, a real opposition existed within reality, and the central problem became understanding the conditions for this opposition and the possibility of transcending it.

In his ambitious, unfinished work Weltalter (The Ages of the World, c. 1815), Schelling planned a three-part history of the world (past, present, and future) as the history of God's own generation and self-unfolding. He began only the first part, rewriting it multiple times but ultimately leaving it unpublished. This work posited a fundamental conflict between a dark, unconscious principle and a conscious principle within God. God makes the universe intelligible by relating to the ground of the real, but inasmuch as nature is not complete intelligence, the real exists as a lack within the ideal. The three universal ages, distinct only to human perception but not in the eternal God, comprise a beginning where the principle of God before God is divine will striving for being, the present age (still part of this growth and a mediated fulfillment), and a finality where God is consciously and consummately Himself.

Schelling's Berlin lectures, particularly on the "positive philosophy" of mythology and revelation, further developed these ideas. He distinguished his "positive philosophy" from the "negative philosophy" of Kant, Fichte, and Hegel. While negative philosophy addresses "das Was" (what something is), positive philosophy seeks to answer "das Dass" (that something is), exploring the actual existence and historical manifestation of being. These lectures are considered by some to be the culmination of Schelling's philosophical system and German Idealism.

4.1. Historical Reception

Schelling's work initially gained significant traction among his contemporaries. However, his philosophy, particularly in its later stages, was largely neglected, especially in the English-speaking world. A major factor in this was the dominance of Hegel's philosophy, whose mature works often portrayed Schelling as a mere footnote in the development of idealism. Furthermore, Schelling's Naturphilosophie faced criticism from scientists for its tendency towards analogy and perceived lack of empirical grounding.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, philosophers associated with Neo-Kantianism and Neo-Hegelianism, such as Wilhelm Windelband and Richard Kroner, often described Schelling as a transitional figure connecting Fichte and Hegel. During this time, his later philosophical period tended to be overlooked, with scholarly focus primarily on his philosophies of nature and art from the 1790s and early 1800s. Kuno Fischer, for instance, characterized Schelling's early philosophy as "aesthetic idealism," emphasizing his assertion that art was "the sole document and the eternal organ of philosophy." Socialist philosophers like György Lukács regarded his ideas as anachronistic.

The situation began to change in the 1950s. In 1954, the centennial of his death, an international conference on Schelling was held, bringing renewed attention to his work. Several philosophers, including Karl Jaspers, delivered presentations highlighting the uniqueness and contemporary relevance of his thought, with interest shifting towards his later work on the origin of existence. Schelling was also the subject of Jürgen Habermas's 1954 dissertation, Das Absolute und die Geschichte. Von der Zwiespältigkeit in Schellings Denken. In 1955, Jaspers published Schelling, portraying him as a forerunner of existentialism. Simultaneously, Walter Schulz, one of the organizers of the 1954 conference, published "Die Vollendung des Deutschen Idealismus in der Spätphilosophie Schellings" (The Perfection of German Idealism in Schelling's Late Philosophy), arguing that Schelling's late philosophy, particularly his Berlin lectures of the 1840s, had completed German Idealism by resolving philosophical problems left incomplete by Hegel, thereby challenging the prevailing notion that Hegel had long surpassed Schelling.

4.2. Influence on Later Thought

Schelling's philosophy has had a broad and diverse impact on various intellectual movements and thinkers across disciplines. His work deeply impressed the English Romantic poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who introduced Schelling's ideas into English-speaking culture, sometimes without full acknowledgment, as seen in his Biographia Literaria. Coleridge's critical work was influential, and he is credited with introducing Schelling's concept of the unconscious into English literature.

Schelling's System of Transcendental Idealism has been recognized as a precursor to Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), and Schelling is often credited with coining the term "unconsciousness." The contemporary philosopher Slavoj Žižek has written two books attempting to integrate Schelling's philosophy, primarily his middle-period works including Weltalter, with the work of Jacques Lacan.

The Catholic Tübingen school, a group of 19th-century Roman Catholic theologians at the University of Tübingen, was significantly influenced by Schelling and sought to reconcile his philosophy of revelation with Catholic theology. Theologian Paul Tillich stated that "what I learned from Schelling became determinative of my own philosophical and theological development." Maurice Merleau-Ponty also drew parallels between his own project of natural ontology and Schelling's in his 1957-58 Course on Nature. The opposition and division within God and the problem of evil in God, explored by the later Schelling, influenced the thought of Luigi Pareyson.

In the 1970s, with renewed philosophical interest in nature due to environmental concerns, Schelling's philosophy of nature experienced a re-evaluation. His ambition to construct a unified system encompassing both nature and intellectual life, and to restore nature as a central theme in philosophy, has been re-examined in a contemporary context. His influence on the German art scene, particularly Romantic literature and visual art, from figures like Philipp Otto Runge to contemporary artists such as Gerhard Richter and Joseph Beuys, has been a subject of interest since the late 1960s. More recently, environmental philosopher Arran Gare has identified a "Schellingian science" that bridges the divide between science and the humanities, offering a foundation for understanding ecological science and philosophy.

4.3. Criticism and Controversy

Despite his significant contributions, Schelling's philosophy was not without its critics and controversies. His most prominent intellectual rival, Hegel, famously critiqued Schelling's concept of the Absolute as an undifferentiated unity, stating that in such a system, "all cows are black at night," implying a lack of meaningful distinction. Hegel also criticized Schelling for presenting the Absolute as an immediate intuition, rather than a concept developed through dialectical reasoning, likening it to an idea that "bursts from a pistol." These criticisms deeply affected Schelling and marked the end of their early friendship.

Schelling's Naturphilosophie also faced objections from the scientific community, who criticized its reliance on analogy and its perceived lack of empirical rigor. Scientists like Alexander von Humboldt, who attended Schelling's Berlin lectures, never fully accepted his natural philosophy.

Furthermore, Schelling's later philosophy, particularly his "positive philosophy" of mythology and revelation, was largely misunderstood by his contemporaries. Figures like Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Engels, who attended his Berlin lectures, expressed disappointment, albeit from different perspectives. Kierkegaard, interested in human existence, felt Schelling's focus remained solely on the existence of God. The surreptitious publication of his lectures by his old foe, H. E. G. Paulus, further complicated the reception of his later ideas during his lifetime.