The Philosophical Rupture Between Fichte and Schelling: Selected Texts and Correspondence

315 Pages·2012·2.78 MB·English

by  Fichte

PHILOSOPHY
Also published by SUNY PRESS V Also published by SUNY PRESS
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The Philosophical Rupture e Y
THE AGES OF THE WORLD r H THE SCIENCE OF KNOWING

F. W. J. Schelling and OP JJ..GG.. FFiicchhttee // FF..WW..JJ.. SScchheelllliinngg J. G. Fichte’s 1804 Lectures on
Translated and with an Introduction by between Fichte and Schelling W S the Wissenschaftslehre
Jason M. Wirth O J. G. Fichte
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magnum opus, complete with a contextualizing Selected Texts and Correspondence (1800–1802) P MMiicchhaaeell GG.. VVaatteerr aanndd DDaavviidd WW.. WWoooodd Walter E. Wright
introduction by the translator. L The first English translation of Fichte’s second set
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of 1804 lectures on the Wissenschaftslehre.
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CLARA Michael G. Vater and David W. Wood N
or, On Nature’s Connection to the Spirit World T E SCHELLING’S DIALOGICAL
The disputes of philosophers provide a place to view their positions and arguments in a tightly focused N
F. W. J. Schelling FREEDOM ESSAY
Translated and with an Introduction by way, and also in a manner that is infused with human temperaments and passions. Fichte and Schelling he TI Provocative Philosophy Then and Now
had been perceived as “partners” in the cause of Criticism or transcendental idealism since 1794, but N
Fiona Steinkamp P O Bernard Freydberg
upon Fichte’s departure from Jena in 1799, each began to perceive a drift in their fundamental interests
Part novella, part philosophy, Clara was Schelling’s h C Explores Schelling’s Essay on Human Freedom,
and allegiances. Schelling’s philosophy of nature seemed to move him toward a realistic philosophy, i
most popular work during his lifetime, and appears Fl Y focusing on the themes of freedom, evil, and love,
while Fichte’s interests in the origin of personal consciousness, intersubjectivity, and the ultimate deter- io R
here in English for the first time. mination of the agent’s moral will moved him to explore what he called “faith” in one popular text, or a cs A and the relationship between his ideas and those of
ho
R Plato and Kant.
theory of an intelligible world. This volume brings together the letters the two philosophers exchanged tp
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between 1800 and 1802 and the texts that each penned with the other in mind. P “…Freydberg’s volume will encourage readers to
POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY ai M
The Berlin Lectures “Vater and Wood have given us a real gift: a strong and philosophically provocative edition of this nca E PPhhiilloossoopphhiiccaall delve further into this area, whether it is to learn
F. W. J. Schelling indispensible exchange. A thoughtful and very helpful essay that puts many of the issues into a fresh d Sl R NT TThhee mintoerrep arebtoautito nScs.h”e l—lin Gg eorrm taon i nSvtuedstiiegs aRtee vFierweydberg’s
Translated and with an Introduction and philosophical perspective precedes the letters, and some of the important primary texts germane to this O
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Notes by Bruce Matthews debate follow them. For lovers of German idealism, this is a text of great interest and its appearance h C
p THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
T“ehxeis tfienrstti alE snygsltiesmh .”translation of Schelling’s final calls for c—ele bJarasotino nM.”. Wirth, author of The Conspiracy of Life: Meditations on Schelling and His Time ellintur S IN RRuuppttuurree bbeettwweeeenn FSYICSHTETME’ SO AFN PDH ISLCOHSEOLPLHINYG’S
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PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS Michael G. Vater is Associate Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Marquette University. He translated g b RI An English Translation of G. W. F. Hegel’s
and edited Schelling’s Bruno or On the Natural and Divine Principle of Things, also published by SUNY Differenz des Fichte’schen und Schelling’schen
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INTO THE ESSENCE OF
Press. David W. Wood is a postdoctoral researcher at the Fichte Commission at the Bavarian Academy t S Systems der Philosophie
HUMAN FREEDOM w FFiicchhttee SScchheelllliinngg
of Sciences and Humanities, Germany. He translated and edited Novalis’s Notes for a Romantic Y aanndd G. W. F. Hegel
F. W. J. Schelling e N
Encyclopaedia: Das Allgemeine Brouillon, also published by SUNY Press. e U Translated and Edited by H. S. Harris and
Translated and with an Introduction and n
S Walter Cerf
Notes by Jeff Love and Johannes Schmidt
A volume in the SUNY series in E In this essay, Hegel attempted to show how Fichte’s
Schelling’s masterpiece investigating evil and freedom. Contemporary Continental Philosophy H SSeelleecctteedd TTeexxttss aanndd Science of Knowledge was an advance from the po-
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“Love and Schmidt provide a long-overdue new Dennis J. Schmidt, editor sition of Kant in the Critique of Pure Reason, and
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translation of one of the most characteristic works I CCoorrrreessppoonnddeennccee ((11880000––11880022)) how Schelling (and incidentally Hegel himself) had
of Schelling’s middle period.” E made a further advance from the position of Fichte.
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— Review of Metaphysics
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www.sunypress.edu Y Locates in Schelling a new understanding of our
relation to nature in philosophy.

J. G. Fichte/F. W. J. Schelling
SUNY series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy
——————
Dennis J. Schmidt, editor
J. G. Fichte/F. W. J. Schelling
The Philosophical Rupture
between Fichte and Schelling:
Selected Texts and Correspondence
(1800–1802)
Translated, Edited, and with an Introduction by
Michael G. Vater
and
David W. Wood
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2012 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval
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otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production by Diane Ganeles
Marketing by Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von, 1775–1854.
[Selections. English. 2012]
The philosophical rupture between Fichte and Schelling : selected texts
and correspondence (1800–1802) / F.W.J. Schelling and J.G. Fichte ; edited,
translated, and with an introduction by Michael G. Vater and David W. Wood.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in contemporary Continental philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-4017-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von, 1775–1854. 2. Fichte,
Johann Gottlieb, 1762–1814. I. Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, 1762–1814.
II. Vater, Michael G., 1944– III. Wood, David W., 1968– IV. Title.
B2858.V38 2012
193—dc22 2011014141
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: The Trajectory of German Philosophy After
Kant and the “Difference” Between Fichte and Schelling 1
J. G. Fichte/F. W. J. Schelling: Correspondence 1800–1802 21
Introduction to the Texts of J. G. Fichte 77
J. G. Fichte, Texts
– Announcement 85
– New Version of the Wissenschaftslehre (1800) [Extract] 93
– Commentaries on Schelling’s System of Transcendental
Idealism and Presentation of My System of
Philosophy (1800–1801) 119
Introduction to the Texts of F. W. J. Schelling 135
F. W. J. Schelling, Texts
– Presentation of My System of Philosophy (1801)
– Further Presentations from the System of Philosophy (1802) [Extract] 141
Notes
to Introduction 227
to Fichte–Schelling Correspondence 230
to Fichte Texts 243
to Schelling Texts 247
Select Bibliography 265
Index 271

Acknowledgments
Almost all the texts translated in this volume are based on the established
critical editions, the J. G. Fichte Gesamtausgabe der Bayerischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, eds. Reinhard Lauth, Hans Gliwitzky, Hans Jacob, Erich Fuchs,
Peter K. Schneider, and Günter Zöller [GA] and the Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph
Schelling Historisch-kritische Ausgabe der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissen-
schaften, eds. Thomas Buchheim, Jochem Hennigfeld, Wilhelm G. Jacobs, Jörg
Jantzen, and Siegbert Peetz [HkA]. The editor-translators of the present volume
are grateful to the commissions of scholars who have carried out this work, and
for the support of the Freistatt Bayern and the Bundesrepublik Deutschland for
these institutions and their long-term projects.
We are particularly grateful to Manfred Durner, Thomas Kisser, Walter
Schieche, and Alois Wieshuber for the critical edition of the relevant Schelling
texts and letters that have been published in the last two years, and to Erich
Fuchs, Peter K. Schneider, and Manfred Zahn for their critical edition and
notes of the Fichte texts and letters from the corresponding period 1800–1802.
Hartmut Traub’s edition of the Schelling-Fichte Briefwechsel has been very helpful,
and Myriam Bienenstock’s elegant French translation of that text and Emmanuel
Cattin’s of Schelling’s Presentation served both as inspirations and benchmarks.
Thomas Kisser, Ives Radrizzani, and Hans Georg von Manz provided helpful
assistance in the location of manuscripts and texts.
Both of us have especially benefited from long-term support and encourage-
ment in this field from Karl Ameriks, Daniel Breazeale, Hans Jörg Sandkühler,
and Günter Zöller. All these people are responsible for whatever merit there is in
these translations and analyses; flaws and mistakes of course rest on our doorstep.
Thanks are due to the Frommann-Holzboog Verlag for their kind permis-
sion to translate Fichte’s short commentary “Vorarbeiten gegen Schelling” and
the excerpt from the Neue Bearbeitung der Wissenschaftslehre, and to the editor
and publisher of The Philosophical Forum, where earlier and partial translations
of the Schelling texts appeared. We are particularly grateful to Andrew Kenyon,
Diane Ganeles, and the State University of New York Press for welcoming this
manuscript into their collection of works on German idealism.
vii
viii Acknowledgments
Finally, David W. Wood would especially like to thank Laure Cahen-
Maurel and Erich Fuchs for their help. Michael Vater would like to thank Steve
Iverson, Grace Jessen, Sue Firer, and the late Claudia Schmidt for their personal
support.