The Unconditional in Human Knowledge: Four Early Essays (1794-1796)

263 Pages·1980·6.313 MB·English

by  F. W. J. Schelling

The Unconditional
in Human Knowledge
Four Early Essays
(1794-1796)
by
F. W. J. Schelling
Translation and Commentary by
Fritz Marti
l.ewisburg
Hue knell University Press
London: Associated University l*resses
'• /
%■
The Young Schelling
A drawing of 1808 or 1809 by Josef Klotz. Courtesy of the
Münchner Stadtmuseum
© 1980 by Associated University Presses, Inc.
Associated University Presses, Inc.
Cranbury, New Jersey 08512
Associated University Presses
Magdalen House
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Schelllng, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von, 1775-1854.
The unconditional in human knowledge.
Include* bibliographies and indexes.
CONTENTS: 1. On the possibility of a form of all philosophy. —2. Of the I as
principle of philosophy, or On the unconditional in human knowledge. — 3. Philo-
lophlcal letters on dogmatism and criticism.—4. New deduction of natural right.
I. Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804 —Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Philosophy —
Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Title.
BI7B8.S17 1979 193 77-74407
ISBN 0-8S87-2020-X
Other books by Fritz Marti:
A Philosophical Glossary
Rtligwti, Reason and Man
Htligion and Philosophy
On Btinn Human by Fritz Medicus (translator)
I'KINTKD IN 11 IK IINITKI) STAIRS OK AMKKICA
To my students and colleagues
of 1923 to 1973
and to my gracious hosts at the
University of Notre Dame du Lac
Contents
Abbreviations 9
Schelling Bibliography 11
Preface 13
Acknowledgments 15
Introduction 17
Biographical Note on Schelling 29
Four Early Essays of Schelling
Translator’s Introduction 35
1 On the Possibility of a Form of All Philosophy 38
Translator’s Notes 56
Translator’s Introduction 59
2 Of the I as Principle of Philosophy, or On the
Unconditional in Human Knowledge 63
Translator’s Notes 129
Translator’s Introduction 151
3 Philosophical Letters on Dogmatism and Criticism 156
Translator’s Notes 197
Translator’s Introduction 219
4 New Deduction of Natural Right 221
Translator’s Notes 247
Appendix A: Kant’s Publications after 1780 253
Appendix B: Publications by Kant and Others Pertinent
to Schelling’s Beginnings 255 •
Appendix C: References to Kant 257
Appendix D: Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843);
Judgment and Being 261
Indexes 263
Subject Index 264
Index of Names 270
7
Abbreviations
PuR Kant Critique of Pure Reason
Pro I Prolegomena
PrR Critique of Practical Reason
CrJ Critique of Judgment
Beck Prol, trans. Lewis White Beck (Indianapolis:
Bobb-Merrill, 1950) Foundations of the Meta­
physics of Morals, trans. L.W. Beck (Indiana­
polis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1959)
PrR, trans. L.W. Beck (Indianapolis: Bobbs-
Merrill, 1956)
Bernard CrJ, trans. J.H. Bernard (New York: Hafner
Press, 1961)
Cass. Ernst Cassirer, ed., Kants Werke, 11 vols.
(Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1912-22)
Diels Hermann Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokrati-
ker. Griechisch und Deutsch. (Berlin: Weid-
mannsche Buchhandlung, 1912)
Heath Johann G. Fichte, Science of Knowledge, trans.
Peter Heath and John Lachs (New York: Apple­
ton. Century-Crofts; Meredith Corporation, 1970)
Plitt G.L. Plitt, ed., Aus Schelling Leben. In Briefen,
3 vols. (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1869-70)
Smith Kant PuR, trans. Norman Kemp Smith (New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1965)
Wild John Wild, ed., Spinoza. Selections (New York:
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930)
WL Fichte’s own occasional abbreviation of Wissen­
schaftslehre
Poss. Schelling On the Possibility of a Form of All Philosophy
Of I Of the I as Principle of Philosophy
Dug in Philosophical Letters on Dogmatism and Criticism
NR New Deduction of Natural Right
9
10 THE UNCONDITIONAL IN HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
Original Editions Used
Flehte, Werke, 11 vols. (Leipzig: Mayer and Müller, n.d.)
Ilrgrl, Werke, 19 vols. (Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot, 1831-87)
Sclirlling, Werke, 14 vols. (Stuttgart and Augsburg: J.G. Cotta, 1856-
Schelling Bibliography
Brown, Robert F. Schelling’s Treatise on “The Deities of Samothrace.”
A Translation and an Interpretation. American Academy of
Religion, Studies in Religion. Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, 1977.
Pp. 64-65.
Jost, Johannes. F. W.J. von Schelling, Bibliographie der Schriften von ihm
und über ihn. Bonn, 1927.
Marquet, Jean-François. Liberté et existence. Etude sur la formation de
la philosophie de Schelling. Paris: Gallimard, 1973. Pp. 587-90.
Sandkühler, Hans Jörg. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. Stuttgart:
Metzler, 1970, pp. 24-41.
Schneeberger, Guido. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling. Eine
Bibliographie. Bern, 1954.
Tilliette, Xavier. Schelling. Une philosophie en devenir. Paris: Vrin,
1970. 2:507-14.
Zeltner, Hermann. Schelling-Forschung seit 1954. Darmstadt: Wissen­
schaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1975. Pp. 3-4, 109-15.
To facilitate reference to specific pages of Schelling’s German text,
the page number of each is inserted at the appropriate place in brackets
throughout the translations of the four essays. This same original
pagination is also used in the translator’s notes when Schelling’s essays
are referred to. The same bold ciphers appear at the inner top corner of
each page.
Preface
I translated Schelling’s Letters on Dogmatism, and Criticism in 1930,
encouraged by Professor Arthur O. Lovejoy of The Johns Hopkins
University, who even penciled some emendations on my first draft. In the
thirties my friend James Gutmann used typescript copies in his seminar at
Columbia University. His translation of Of Human Freedom was printed
at his expense. Then his pupil Frederick Bolman translated and
commented The Ages of the World as his doctoral dissertation at
Columbia University, whose Press published it. But the mood of the age
was not favorable to Schelling.
A few years ago I put my old copies of the Letters in the hands of my
students at Southern Illinios University at Edwardsville, and they
confirmed my long-held opinion that the essay is a good introduction to
post-Kantian speculation. They also pointed out many of the main diffi­
culties that might confront a reader who is neither at home in Kant nor
familiar with Fichte.
It is that reader whom I kept in mind while rewriting the translation of
the Letters and while translating the other three essays contained in this
volume. My commentary notes are placed at the ends of the essays, so that
the reader who does not need them can read Schelling without tutorial
interruptions. The commentary is frankly tutorial because I still harbor
the hope that professional philosophers in America will study more
seriously the consequences of Kant’s revolution, especially as they are seen
in Schelling, and that the dogmatic division between so-called idealism
and realism will no longer confuse students.
My wife, Gertrude Austin Marti, deserves the main credit if my trans­
lations are readable. My editor, Mrs. Mathilde E. Finch, contributed
innumerable small but pertinent emendations. My own stubbornness is to
be blamed if, in my endeavor to follow Schelling’s German closely, the
translation will in spots takes liberties with English.
South Bend, Indiana Fritz Marti
All Saints’ Day, 1977
13
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following publishers for permission to reprint
material under copyright:
The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., for quotations from Immanuel Kant,
Prolegomena, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, and Critique
of Practical Reason, translated by Lewis Beck. Copyright © 1950, 1959,
1956 respectively by the Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.
Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., for quotations from Immanuel Kant,
Critique of Judgment, translated and with Introduction by J. H.
Bernard. Copyright © 1961 by Hafner Press.
Metaphilosophy, for permission to reprint my translation of Schelling’s
“On the Possibility of a Form for All Philosophy,” Metaphilosophy 6,
no. 1 (January 1975):l-24.
Prentice-Hall, Inc., for quotations from Johann G. Fichte, Science of
Knowledge, edited and translated by Peter Heath and John Lachs.
Copyright © 1970 by Appleton-Century-Crofts. Reprinted by Permis­
sion of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
St. Martin’s Press, Inc., and Macmillan & Co., Ltd., for quotations from
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, translated by Norman Kemp
Smith. Copyright © 1965 by St. Martin’s Press, Inc.
Charles Scribner’s Sons, for quotations from Spinoza Selections, edited
by John Wild. Copyright 1930 by Charles Scribner’s Sons.
15