The Schelling Reader

438 Pages·2020·8.41 MB·English

by  Daniel Whistler (editor), Benjamin Berger (editor)

The Schelling
Reader
Edited by
Benjamin Berger and
Daniel Whistler
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
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Preface
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First published in Great Britain 2021
Introduc
Reprinted 2021
of F.W.J.
Copyright © Benjamin Berger and Daniel Whistler, 2021
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Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Editors of this work.
Part I l
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. ix constitute
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Cover image: Friedrich W.J. von Schelling (1775-1854)
Introdi
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Contents
30 (cid:9) Preface and acknowledgements ix
Introduction to the Reader: The life and thought
of F.W.J. Schelling 1
Copyright,
work.
Part I Metaphysics 11
The unconditioned
13
Introduction
13
Of the I as Principle of Philosophy (1795)
nsmitted in 15
First Outline of a System of the Philosophy of Nature (1799)
:opying, 24
prior The Ages of the World, 3rd version (1815)
29
Presentation of the Purely Rational Philosophy (c. 1847) 33
ibility for, Alternative Deduction of the Principles of Positive Philosophy
ses given
(c. 1845) 40
Publisher
Further reading
s have 44
Iges.
ary. 2 Identity and difference 45
tress Introduction 45
Presentation of My System of Philosophy (1801) 46
Bruno, or On the Natural and the Divine Principle of Things
(1802) 55
--- On the Relation of the Ideal and the Real in Nature (1806) 59
Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom and
Related Matters (1809) 63
Stuttgart Private Lectures (1810) 69
y.com
Further reading
77
vi (cid:9) Contents
— Lectu
3 Nature 79
Lectu
Introduction 79 —On th
Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature (1797) 81 Furth
Introduction to the Outline of a System of the Philosophy of Nature
(1799) 86
7 Sys1
System of Philosophy in General and the Philosophy of Nature in
Intro(
Particular (1804) 98
Clara (c. 1810) 105 Philo
Syster
-- On Faraday's Most Recent Discovery (1832) 110
- Preset
Further reading 120
Philo:
On th
4 Time, space and the categories 123
Furth
Introduction 123
Of the I as Principle of Philosophy (1795) 124
8 Hist
Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature (1803) 130
Introc
Ages of the World, 1st version (1811) 133
Presentation of the Purely Rational Philosophy (c. 1847) 143 `Tima
—Imma
Further reading 153
Lectui
Lectui
Part II Philosophical methods 155 Furth
5 Intuition, construction and recollection 157
Part Ill
Introduction 157
Treatises Explaining the Idealism of the Science of Knowledge
9 Free
(1797) 158
Introd
-- Lectures on the Method of Academic Study (1803) 165
On Construction in Philosophy (1803) 169 Philos
Systen
The Ages of the World, 3rd version (1815) 177
Systen
Further reading 183
Partie
Philos
6 Reason and experience 185
and RI
Introduction 185 Furth(
Is a Philosophy of History Possible? (1798) 186
Introduction to the Outline of a System of the Philosophy of Nature
(1799) 192
Contents (cid:9) vii
Lectures on the System of Positive Philosophy (1832/3) 197
Lectures on the Philosophy of Revelation (1842/3) 207
On the Source of the Eternal Truths (1850) 214
Further reading 223
of Nature
7 System 225
ature in
Introduction 225
Philosophical Letters on Dogmatism and Criticism (1795) 227
System of Transcendental Idealism (1800) 232
Presentation of the Transition from a Philosophy of Nature to a
Philosophy of the Spirit World (1810?) 242
On the Nature of Philosophy as Science (1821) 247
Further reading 254
8 History of philosophy
257
Introduction 257
43 `Timaeus' (1794) 258
Immanuel Kant (An Obituary) (1804) 265
Lectures on the History of Modern Philosophy (1833/4) 270
Lectures on the Philosophy of Revelation (1842/3) 277
Further reading 283
In 157
Part Ill The ideal world
285
:dge
g Freedom
287
Introduction 287
Philosophical Letters on Dogmatism and Criticism (1795) 288
System of Transcendental Idealism (1800) 292
System of Philosophy in General and the Philosophy of Nature in
Particular (1804) 297
Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom
and Related Matters (1809) 303
Further reading 314
of Nature
viii (cid:9) Contents
10 Art and mythology 317
Introduction 317
System of Transcendental Idealism (1800) 318
Lectures on the Philosophy of Art (1802-4) 325
On the Relationship of the Plastic Arts to Nature (1807) 327
Historical-Critical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mythology
(1845) 346
Further reading 350 F.W.J. Schel
Hegel in tho
11 Religion 351 of Immanut
takes the hi:
Introduction 351
his enormo
-- Heinz Widerporst's Epicurean Confession of Faith (1799) 353
`the twenty-
Lectures on the Method of Academic Study (1803) 361
Reason of I
Philosophy and Religion (1804) 370
that, to po:
Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom and
And yet, Sc
Related Matters (1809) 376
the German
Lectures on the Philosophy of Revelation (1841/2) 381
`shattered' i
Further reading 392
other rebelli
younger Ma
12 Politics 395
scientific ad
Introduction 395 of evolutior
-- New Deduction of Natural Right (1796) 396 represents, i
System of Philosophy in General and the Philosophy of Nature in or, as Gabri
Particular (1804) 400 heroic adve
Stuttgart Private Lectures (1810) 402 remain an e:
Presentation of the Purely Rational Philosophy (c. 1847) 406 The Schell'
Further reading 420 of Schelling':
diversity - tl
Index 422 reception his
selection of t
many of the
well as lesser-
hope is therel
readers excit(
In order tn
approaching
employed in
Preface and
acknowledgements
7
:
ology
F.W.J. Schelling (1775-1854) stands between J.G. Fichte and G.W.F.
Hegel in the sequence of great German thinkers that follow in the wake
of Immanuel Kant's Copernican revolution in philosophy. Anyone who
takes the history of philosophy seriously will find it impossible to gainsay
his enormous contribution, not only to what has recently been called
353
`the twenty-five years of philosophy'1 (running from the Critique of Pure
Reason of 1781 to the Phenomenology of Spirit in 1807), but, beyond
eedom and that, to post-Hegelian currents and debates in the 1830s and 1840s.
.
And yet, Schelling is also much more than an important figure within
the German Idealist tradition: according to Martin Heidegger, Schelling
`shattered' idealism;2 for Paul Tillich, he is to be listed alongside `the
other rebelling existentialists of the nineteenth century (Kierkegaard, the
younger Marx, Nietzsche)';3 and his philosophies of nature inspired later
scientific advances in dynamics, electromagnetic field theory and theories
of evolution.4 Indeed, for Schellingians from Coleridge to Zizek, he
represents, in Karl Jaspers's words, `a prototype of modern possibilities;'5
sture in
or, as Gabriel Marcel puts it: `For thought that regards philosophy as a
heroic adventure entailing risks and skirting abysses, he will always
remain an exhilarating companion:6
06 The Schelling Reader is the first comprehensive, English-language anthology
of Schelling's writings, designed to introduce students to their r ange and
diversity - those very features which have given rise to such a multifaceted
reception history. It functions as a textbook to give students access to a large
selection of readings from his philosophy in one volume. Hence, it includes
many of the most important passages' from all of Schelling's major works, as
well as lesser-known yet illuminating lectures, essays, dialogues and poems. The
hope is thereby to help encourage, through this anthology, a new generation of
readers excited by the experience of thinking alongside Schelling.
In order to make the Reader as accessible and helpful as possible to those
approaching Schelling for the first time, the following principles have been
employed in our editing:
x (cid:9) Preface and acknowledgements
1 Unlike any other volume on Schelling, chapters are here arranged Letters
thematically, and, within each chapter, there are extracts spanning the Idealis
whole of his career from the mid-1790s to 1850. In this way, every Plastic
period of Schelling's philosophical trajectory is fully represented, of soul
but, at the same time, extracts on the same theme - no matter how Schelli
far apart chronologically - are placed next to one another. Such a to stre
.
structure, we hope, will allow readers to judge for themselves whether the im
Schelling approaches these themes in the same way throughout his in ordo
life or whether he changes his mind. That is, it addresses the Hegelian 3 The th
accusations of Schelling as a 'Proteus of philosophy' who `carried out his reader
philosophical education in public:$ Is Schelling simply an inconsistent follow
philosopher who changes his mind and his system from one year to Freder
the next? And is this the case for each element of his thinking? Or of Scf
are there ways in which Schelling's thought develops in a continuous metho
fashion, building and elaborating upon his earlier ideas? This Reader who w
is structured so that students can decide for themselves - when it intuitio
comes to the absolute, to nature or to freedom - what continuities and of the <
discontinuities determine the path of Schellingian philosophy. in sep
2 The Schelling Reader includes both expected and unexpected extracts his me
from Schelling's corpus. For example, alongside the venerated passages of myt
on art from the conclusion to the System of Transcendental Idealism materi
and on the copula from the Philosophical Investigations into the Essence to eng,
of Human Freedom, we have included lesser-known texts, such as And yo
the poem Heinz Widerporst's Epicurean Confession of Faith and the of the
mystic novel-cum-dialogue Clara. We have also been able to include, philos(
alongside previously translated works, a host of new translations of there i
key Schellingian writings. Translated for the first time into English accessi
in this volume are the early programmatic Is a Philosophy of History that he
Possible?; sections on life, freedom and the state from the 1804 and in
Würzburger System; an obituary for Immanuel Kant; a lecture on the therefc
historical significance of Michael Faraday; passages from the lectures sophist
on philosophical empiricism from the 1830s; sections from Schelling's attemp
first lectures in Berlin (those at which Kierkegaard, Bakunin and Engels The Scl
were present); the Alternative Deduction of the Principles of Positive works,
Philosophy; and three sustained extracts from the Presentation of the 4 Schelli
Purely Rational Philosophy on topics as diverse as the unconditioned teaches
in negative philosophy, the spatial orientation of the organism and aniholo
the nature and purpose of the state. What is more, the following also to fill t
includes new translations of central passages from the Philosophical period
Preface and acknowledgements (cid:9) xi
ere arranged Letters on Dogmatism and Criticism, the Treatises Explaining the
spanning the Idealism of the Science of Knowledge and On the Relationship of the
s way, every Plastic Arts to Nature. The reason behind the inclusion of such a range
represented, of sources is to highlight the many different methods, styles and genres
matter how Schelling adopted over the course of his life; it is - in other words -
nther. Such a to stress the ever-experimental nature of Schellingian philosophizing,
Ives whether the impulse to try out new forms, new vocabularies and new concepts
roughout his in order to articulate what matters for thinking.
the Hegelian 3 The thematic arrangement of the chapters means, furthermore, that
arried out his readers can dive into this anthology at any point without needing to
inconsistent follow a linear or cumulative sequence. We have nominally followed
L one year to Frederick Beiser's and lain Hamilton Grant's influential interpretations
hinking? Or of Schelling by beginning with metaphysical topics, rather than
:
a continuous methodological or epistemological ones. Nevertheless, any reader
This Reader who wishes to begin by getting to grips with the concept of intellectual
- when it intuition or human freedom need not be constrained by the ordering
[tinuities and of the chapters. There is, indeed, necessarily an element of arbitrariness
Dphy. in separating, for example, Schelling's description of the absolute from
cted extracts his methodological accounts of intuition or, similarly, his discussions
ited passages of mythology from those of religion. Throughout, we have selected
ntal Idealism material that students dipping in and out of the volume will be able
the Essence to engage without a previous understanding of Schelling's philosophy.
!xts, such as And yet, this evidently does not mean - and cannot mean - that all
'aith and the of the chapters are easy reads: Schelling is an extraordinarily difficult
[e to include, philosopher, writing difficult prose and dealing with difficult concepts;
anslations of there is no getting around that. While some of his texts are more
into English accessible on first read, others are simply daunting. And this means
by of History that he should be read - as all philosophers should - with patience
m the 1804 and intellectual charity. From the very beginning of the anthology,
.cture on the therefore, students will be faced with the high level of philosophical
[ the lectures sophistication to which Schelling forever aspired. We have in no way
m Schelling's attempted to bowdlerize or simplify Schelling's writings: the aim of
n and Engels The Schelling Reader is to provide a genuine experience of reading his
es of Positive works, with all its joys and frustrations.
station of the 4 Schelling's philosophy has often presented formidable challenges to
[conditioned teachers, and this has not been helped by the lack of a one-volume
rganism and anthology or textbook in English. The Schelling Reader is intended
llowing also to fill this gap not only by including a range of readings from every
►
Philosophical period of Schelling's output and by showcasing the vast array of