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The essence of the philosophy of shelling. Essence of Schelling Philosophy Books from the Scientific Library Collection

Highly appreciating Fichte's achievements, Schelling, however, could not agree with his statements in relation to nature. Both the data of natural science and Schelling's intuition said that nature is not only a product of the activity of the "I": passive and unconscious.
Schelling uses two possibilities to explain the essence of self-consciousness. Firstly, he derives it from nature, having created a natural-philosophical system for this purpose, and, secondly, he derives nature from the development of self-consciousness.
The main thing in Schelling is his philosophy of identity, which speaks of the original identity of the objective and the subjective in a certain unity, from which, dialectically, all the diversity of the world is derived, and to which it, in exactly the same way, is reduced. Schelling created the contours of a philosophical system in which for the first time a satisfactory explanation was given to the problem of the identity of subject and object, which is central to the philosophy of modern times. Without Schelling there would be no Hegel. An important result of Schelling's philosophical research is his philosophy of art, which affirms the possibility of art to express absolute truth.

Schelling's main works
"On the Soul of the World" (1798); General Deduction of the Dynamic Process (1800); System of Transcendental Idealism (1800); Exposition of My System of Philosophy (1801); Philosophy of Art (1803); "Philosophy and Religion" (1804); "Philosophical study of freedom" (1809); "World Epochs" (1811-1815); "Philosophy of Mythology" (1820)

Periodization of Schelling's work

* Naturphilosophical period (second half of the 90s).
* The period of transcendental idealism -1800-1801.
* Philosophy of Identity - before 1810.
* Philosophy of revelation - from 1810 to the end of life.

Sources of Schelling's philosophy
* The philosophy of Fichte and Kant, in particular, Fichte's doctrine of the activity of self-consciousness and Kant's idea of the primacy of practical reason over theoretical.
* Discoveries in the natural sciences of that time associated with the names of Galvani, Coulomb, Lavoisier, and especially K.F. Kilmeyer, who created the original theory of the development of nature.
* Literary and aesthetic activities of the German Enlighteners and representatives of romanticism in art.
* Socio-political moods in Europe and Germany caused by the French Revolution.

Schelling's natural philosophy

Naturphilosophy (philosophy of nature) was created by Schelling in order to refute Fichte's assertion about the unreasonableness of nature. Fichte derived nature from the activity of the ego, while Schelling, on the contrary, derives self-consciousness from the development of nature.
Schelling bases all his philosophical reflections on nature on the latest achievements in the natural sciences of that time. Nature, in his opinion, is not something passive and static, but is in a state of constant development, movement, change.
Unlike natural science, the philosophy of nature tries to see in natural processes not just a regularity, but the “spiritualization” that occurs in them, an approach to self-consciousness. There is not just a parallelism between natural and spiritual processes, but, as modern natural science shows, there is a movement of the natural towards the spiritual: this indicates a historical connection between nature and spirit.
Schelling argued that it is not necessary to endow nature with a soul: the latter is present there from the very beginning as a potential and is revealed in history, moving towards self-consciousness. Nature develops not mechanically, due to an external impulse, but dialectically. This means that the source of its development is in itself and represents the identity of opposites in the original unity.
All the diversity of nature can be explained as a manifestation of common natural forces. The first and elementary form of polarity in nature is magnetism. The historical stages in the development of opposites in nature, according to Schelling, are as follows:

* Magnetism.
* Electricity.
* Chemistry.

These three stages represent the dialectical process of thesis - antithesis-synthesis.
If nature develops dialectically, then dialectics can also be the way to comprehend nature. The ultimate goal of the development of nature is to return it to the original, to the identity of the spiritual and natural. However, this return means that nature has reached the stage of self-consciousness.
In his natural philosophy, Schelling shows that there are two possible ways to build a system: one starts from the objective, from nature itself, and comes to the subjective, self-consciousness. The other, starting from the subjective self-consciousness, deduces the objectivity of nature.

Schelling's system of transcendental idealism

If in natural philosophy Schelling shows the movement from the objective to the subjective, then with his transcendental philosophy he attempts to derive the objective from the subjective, from the absolute "I". Schelling introduces the principle of historicism into the development of consciousness and shows how, rising, the "I" passes from one level of self-contemplation to another. The source of self-development of the absolute "I" is the arbitrariness of pure will, the inner need of the "I" to manifest itself in the world.
Schelling calls the history of self-consciousness the "Odyssey of the Spirit". On the way from the initial state to the highest identity of subject and object, there are stages of theoretical and practical philosophy.
Theoretical philosophy consists of the following epochs:

* From the initial state to productive contemplation.
* From productive contemplation to reflection.
* From reflection to an act of will.

Practical philosophy includes such eras:

* Moral.
* right
* Art.

The ascent of self-consciousness ends when it returns to its starting point, to its original identity. This happens in art, because it objectifies the harmony of the objective and the subjective.
Schelling considered the main tool of knowledge intellectual intuition: the act of direct mental capture of an intellectual action at the moment when it occurs.

Schelling's Philosophy of Art
Aesthetic contemplation, according to Schelling, is the highest form of productive contemplation, because here there is objectivity, completeness and general validity. Art is higher than philosophy: it is more integral and accessible. Only art can objectify what exists in philosophy in a subjective form. In the future, philosophy and art will come closer, and the work of a philosopher and a scientist will be akin to the work of a poet. Schelling calls the unity of science, art and philosophy a "new mythology" and predicts its imminent appearance. It will be a synthesis of everything that people have learned from the field of nature and the history of the spirit.

Marks Schelling as his predecessor. At the university, Schelling did not remain a stranger to the influence of public sentiment. The trends of the French Revolution and the enthusiasm of the emerging romanticism found a lively response in him and in his circle of friends. As a translator of the Marseillaise, Schelling receives a severe reprimand from the Duke of Württemberg, who came to Tübingen to curb the dispersed youth.

Soon Schelling's interests focused exclusively on philosophy. He got acquainted with the philosophy of Kant, with the first works of Fichte, and at the age of 19 he himself entered the philosophical field, first as a follower and interpreter of Fichte. At the end of the course, Schelling acts as a home teacher for three years, in conditions very favorable for his own studies. During this time, he manages to become well acquainted with mathematics, physics and medicine and produces several significant works:

"Allgemeine Uebersicht der neuesten philosophischen Literatur",
"Ideen"
"Von der Weltseele".

In the last two, Schelling's natural-philosophical worldview is already outlined.

If things in themselves exist, we come to that fundamental inconsistency of the miraculous coincidence of the world order with the laws of reason, which Schelling so aptly exposed. Obviously, the only possible solution to the dilemma is the second, which consists in the assertion that things do not exist in themselves. What Schelling did not notice was that by "liberating" criticism from contradiction, he himself was actually freeing himself from the influence of the historical Kant and, breaking the fetters of criticism, passed on to free metaphysics. So, Schelling argues, objects do not exist outside the spirit, but arise in the spirit, in a self-creative spiritual process. In this process, it is necessary to distinguish between the unconscious or preparatory stage and the consciousness that follows it. What is created in the unconscious process appears to the awakened consciousness as something given from the outside - as the external world or nature. Nature develops completely freely. Pure and autonomous will is that spiritual principle which is at the basis of this development.

In this statement, Schelling, along with Fichte, anticipates Schopenhauer's philosophy of the will. Fichte only outlined in an abstract way the unconscious process of the development of nature and left unexplored the very important task of discovering this development in concrete reality. To resolve this problem, one must turn to the content of the empirical sciences and construct the development of nature, applying to the given factual material. It is necessary to break out of the narrow framework of abstract reasoning "into the free and open field of objective reality." This task was undertaken by Schelling in the second, natural-philosophical, period of his activity.

Second period

The appeal to natural philosophy followed not only from philosophical problems: it was also required by the development of the empirical sciences and generally met all the intellectual interests of that time. The obscure and mysterious phenomena of electricity, magnetism and chemical affinity attracted at the end of the 18th century. general attention. At the same time, Galvani published his discovery, the doctrine of phlogiston was replaced by Lavoisier's oxygen theory, and Brown's theory of excitability spread in the medical world of Germany. All this required a unification and a common explanation.

Between all the newly discovered natural phenomena, some kind of kinship and dependence was vaguely felt. It was necessary to find a general principle that reveals the mystery of nature and makes it possible to establish the internal connection of all its manifestations. Only philosophy could give such a principle. Schelling clearly understood the demands of the time and directed his efforts to satisfy them. It contained the combination of deep philosophical thought with the sober and sharp-sighted gaze of a naturalist, necessary for resolving natural-philosophical problems. And if Schelling's natural philosophy turned out to be an unsuccessful enterprise in many respects and gave only ephemeral results, then the reason for this should be seen not in Schelling's lack of the necessary talent or knowledge, but in the extreme difficulty of natural philosophical problems, especially at that time, with the complete undeveloped empirical sciences.

Schelling's natural philosophy had several expressions in numerous works, written one after the other in the period from to r. The first works are in the nature of sketches or sketches. As his worldview developed, Schelling supplemented and modified the previously expressed views and expounded his theory in new, more complete and processed forms. In his last natural-philosophical works, there is already emerging new phase his philosophical development expressed in the philosophy of identity.

At first, Schelling's attention was drawn mainly to the concrete and sensual manifestations of nature. Here Schelling's pantheism has a naturalistic and even anti-religious character. Schelling's natural-philosophical poem, which was published in its entirety only after his death, is characteristic of this time: "Epikureisches Glaubensbekenntniss Heinz Widerporstens". In it, Schelling attacks the vague religiosity of some romantics (mainly Schleiermacher and Hardenberg) and professes his religion, which sees God only in what is tangible - and indeed, reveals Him in the dormant life of stones and metals, in the vegetation of moss and plants.

Schelling's task was to trace the development of nature from its lowest levels to the highest manifestations of conscious life. All nature for Schelling is a dormant intelligentsia, coming to full awakening in human spirit. Man is the highest goal of nature. “Ich bin der Gott, den sie im Busen hegt, der Geist, der sich in Allem bewegt,” exclaims Schelling in the above-mentioned poem.

The basic principle of Schelling's natural philosophy

The basic principle of Schelling's natural philosophy is unity. From the point of view of this principle, all nature is, as it were, one infinitely branching organism. The internal forces that determine the development of the various parts of this organism are the same everywhere. Only through mutual complication and combinations do they give such diverse external manifestations of nature. There are no sharp boundaries between inorganic and organic nature. Schelling resolutely rejects the point of view of vitalism, which assumes, in order to explain life processes, special vitality. Inorganic nature itself produces organic nature. At the heart of both one and the other lies a single life process. The source of this process is the world soul, which animates all nature. The essence of life is the interaction of forces. But interaction exists only where opposing forces meet. Therefore, this opposition or duality must also be recognized in what constitutes the basis of life, that is, in the soul of the world. But this duality should not be understood as an absolute beginning; on the contrary, it is rooted in the unity of the world soul and eternally strives for synthesis or reconciliation, which is realized in polarity.

Duality and polarity are the universal principles of nature and all development. Every action arises from the collision of opposites, every product of nature is conditioned by oppositely directed activities, related to each other, as positive to negative. Matter is the result of repulsive and attractive forces; magnetism is expressed in the opposites of the poles; electricity reveals the same opposition of positive and negative; chemical affinity is most pronounced in contrast to acids and alkalis; all organic life, according to Brown's theory, consists in the ratio of opposite forces of irritability and irritation; Finally, consciousness itself is conditioned by the opposition between the objective and the subjective.

Natural philosophical research, according to Schelling, is fundamentally different from empirical research. The naturalist examines nature from its outside, as a finished external object; in such an investigation, its very essence remains hidden and unexplored. The natural philosopher presents nature not as something given, but as an object formed from within. He looks into the very depths of this creative process and discovers in the external object the internal subject, that is, the spiritual principle. "The time has come," says Schelling on this occasion, "when the philosophy of Leibniz can be restored." Since natural philosophy comprehends the essence of this inner principle of nature, it can construct the development of nature a priori. Of course, in this construction it has to check itself with the data of external experience. But experience in itself expresses only the accidental, and not the intrinsically necessary.

The first task of natural philosophy

The simplest manifestation of nature is matter. The first task of natural philosophy is to construct matter, as a three-dimensional spatial phenomenon, from the internal forces of nature. Since Schelling reduces matter and all its properties entirely to the ratio of primary forces, he calls this construction the general deduction of the dynamic process. Schelling categorically denies the atomistic or corpuscular theory. He considers the two most general and primary forces to be the basis of the dynamic process: attraction and repulsion.

In the very construction of matter, he notes three points.

The first consists in the balance of two opposing forces at one point; in both directions from this point there is an increase in oppositely directed forces. This relationship of forces is magnetism. In the construction of matter, magnetism appears as a linear force and conditions the first spatial dimension.
The second point is the separation of forces connected in the first at one point. This separation makes it possible for the forces of attraction and repulsion to propagate at an angle to the original line of magnetism. This moment causes the formation of the second dimension. It corresponds to the power of electricity. If magnetism should be called a linear force, then electricity is a surface force.
The synthesis of magnetism and electricity forms the third moment, at which the line of magnetism crosses the surface of propagation of electricity. As a result, all three spatial dimensions are constructed.

The boundaries of material objects are nothing but the boundaries of the forces of attraction and repulsion. But these forces are not enough to form an impenetrable body. Both the boundaries of the body and its internal structure consist of fixed points of attraction and repulsion. This fixation is produced by the third common force, which synthesizes two opposite forces at each point of the body. This third force, penetrating through and in all directions the dynamic structure of the body, Schelling calls gravity. It depends on the density of the body. Among the forces of nature, it corresponds to the force of chemical affinity. Gravity is a force that constructs matter in its last moment, definitely binding all the forces of attraction and repulsion. Chemical affinity is already revealed on the formed matter, also as a synthesizing force, forcing heterogeneous bodies to penetrate each other and create new qualitatively different types of matter. The described order of the construction of matter should not be understood in the sense of a temporal order.

These are ideal and timeless moments, discovered only by an introspective analysis of the dynamic nature of matter. Schelling calls the dynamic processes that construct visible matter processes of the first order or productive nature in the first potency. These processes are inaccessible to experience, since they precede the formation of matter. Only the process of the third moment (gravity), coinciding with the appearance of matter, is also found in experience. All these processes correspond to the same processes taking place already in the formed matter. These are processes of the second order or the productive nature in the second potency.

Here we are dealing with those phenomena of magnetism and electricity which are known to us in experience. Heaviness in the second potency corresponds to chemism. The force of gravity determines the formation of the body, as filling the space and making it impenetrable. It is opposed to the activity of the second potency, which makes space permeable, which occurs through the destruction of the synthesis of the forces of attraction and repulsion. This reconstructive force, bringing life to frozen and dead forms, is called light. The activities of magnetism, electricity and chemistry are combined in one common activity - galvanism.

Transition from inorganic to organic nature

In galvanism, Schelling saw the central process of nature, representing a transitional phenomenon from inorganic to organic nature. According to the three main activities of inorganic nature (magnetism, electricity and chemistry), Schelling establishes (under the influence of Kielmeyer) three main activities of organic nature:

productive force.

Influence of natural philosophy

Schelling's natural philosophy, in comparison with other periods of his philosophical activity, had the greatest influence and success; people of various interests found satisfaction in it. For representatives of the natural sciences, natural philosophy was a system that reveals the inner nature of phenomena, which is completely not amenable to empirical research and explanation. The unity of all the forces of nature, their inner relationship and connection, the gradual development of nature along the steps of the inorganic and organic world - these are the main ideas of Schelling, which brought and still bring light to all areas of natural history research. And if Schelling's natural philosophy, taken as a whole, could not be included in the content of the sciences, then the influence of its basic ideas and principles on the subsequent development of various fields of knowledge was far from ephemeral.

Under the undoubted influence of Schelling in 1820 Oersted discovered electromagnetism. The geologist Steffens, the biologist Oken, the comparative anatomist K. G. Carus, the physiologist Burdach, the pathologist Kieser, the plant physiologist Ness von Esenbeck, the physicians Schelver and Walther, and the psychologist Schubert are among Schelling's collaborators and followers in this period.

The influence of Schelling's natural philosophy on medicine was especially strong. The natural-philosophical principle of irritability turned out to be exactly the same as Brown's theory, which was popular at that time. Under the influence of two adherents of Schelling - Roeschlaube and Markus in Bamberg - a whole galaxy of young doctors appeared who were fond of Schelling's ideas and carried them out in their dissertations. Whether through the fault of these zealous followers or due to the lack of development of Schelling's own views at that time, his ideas received rather humorous reproduction in medical dissertations. They said that "the organism stands under the scheme of a curved line", that "blood is a fluid magnet", "conception is a strong electric shock", etc. As expected, Schelling's enemies were not slow to take advantage of the opportunity and take all these absurdities at the expense of Schelling himself.

No less strong enthusiasm was aroused by Schelling's natural philosophy among representatives of art. Philosophy, which opened the soul in all manifestations of living and dead nature, saw the mysterious connections and relationships between its most diverse manifestations, and, finally, promised new and unknown forms of life in the endless process of being, was, of course, akin to impulses of romantic feeling and fantasy of Schelling's contemporaries. . If it is permissible to apply general literary characteristics to philosophical systems, then Schelling's worldview has the preemptive right to be called the philosophy of romanticism.

The main theme of Schelling's natural philosophy was the development of nature, as an external object, from the lowest levels to the awakening of the intelligentsia in it. In the history of this development, however, only one side of the general philosophical problem of the relationship between the objective and the subjective is resolved, namely, the question of the transition of the objective into the subjective. The other side remains unresolved, which concerns the re-emergence of the objective in the subjective. How the intelligentsia arrives at the reproduction of nature, and how generally this coordination of the cognitive process with the objective development of nature is conceivable - these are the questions that are the subject of one of Schelling's most complete works: System des transcendentalen Idealismus, which refers to the transition period from natural philosophy to the philosophy of identity.

Third period

The system of transcendental idealism is divided, like Kant's three critics, into three parts:

in the first, theoretical one, the process of objectivation is studied, which occurs through the reproduction by the mind of the nature of the objective;
in the second, practical one, the creation of the objective in free action;
in the third, aesthetic, - the process of artistic creation, in which the opposition of the theoretical and practical principles finds its highest synthesis.

Schelling considers intellectual intuition, that is, the ability for internal discretion of one's own acts, to be the organ of transcendental research. In intellectual intuition, the intelligentsia directly perceives its own essence. In the development of the objective, Schelling distinguishes three epochs in which the intelligentsia successively passes from a vague and bound state to a free volitional act.

The first epoch begins with the emergence of sensation. The sensation is due to one's own self-restraint, setting a limit to one's "I". It is the consciousness of this limitation, which appears to consciousness as something external.
Sensation, conscious as an external object, clearly distinguishable from the subject, turns into productive contemplation, which marks the second era.
The third era is reflection, that is, free consideration of the products of contemplation, turning at will from one object to another.

According to Schelling, this course of development of the objective in consciousness fully corresponds to the development of nature, which is revealed in natural philosophy. Just as self-limitation is the starting point here, so there the dynamic process arises from the limitation of the repulsive force of attraction. In one case, the product is sensation, in the other, matter. Similarly, all degrees of knowledge correspond to the degrees of nature. The reason for this correspondence and coincidence lies in the fact that both processes are rooted in the same essence and in in a certain sense are identical. The possibility of free action is due to the ability to absolutely abstract from all objects. Through this abstraction, the "I" becomes aware of itself as an independent, self-active principle. The resulting activity of the practical "I" becomes purposeful. Volitional activity is directed to individuals external to us. It is in this relationship with other beings that it receives its varied content.

Transcendental idealism leads Schelling to understand the historical process as the realization of freedom. However, since the freedom of all, and not individual individuals, is meant here, this exercise has a legal order as its limitation. The creation of such a legal order combines freedom and necessity. Necessity is inherent in the unconscious factors of the historical process, freedom - conscious. Both processes lead to the same goal. The coincidence of the necessary and the free in the realization of the world's goal indicates that the basis of the world is some absolute identity, which is God.

The participation of divine power in the historical process is manifested in three ways:

first of all, in the form of the blind power of fate, ruling over people; such is the first fatalistic period, distinguished by its tragic character.
In the second period, to which modernity also belongs, the dominant principle is mechanical regularity.
In the third period, divine power will manifest as providence. “When this period comes, then there will be God,” says Schelling enigmatically.

The connection between natural philosophy and Fichte's subjective idealism

The first sketches of Schelling's natural philosophy were in close connection with Fichte's subjective idealism. Schelling's task was, among other things, to construct nature from the transcendental conditions of knowledge. If this problem actually received only an apparent solution, then, in any case, Schelling recognized such a construction as quite possible.

As natural philosophy developed, its attitude to Fichte's point of view changed significantly. The understanding of nature as an object that exists only in consciousness, that is, as a purely phenomenal reality, has been replaced by a view of nature as something that exists outside of consciousness and before consciousness. On the contrary, consciousness itself acquired the meaning of something secondary, appearing only at a certain stage in the development of nature. In addition to the meaning of a subjective phenomenon, the concept of nature acquired the meaning of a completely independent object. Thus Schelling's point of view began to be opposed subjective idealism Fichte as objective idealism.

This opposition was most clearly expressed in Schelling's polemical essay against Fichte: Ueber das Verhältniss der Naturphilosophie zur verbesserten Fichteschen Lehre. Here Schelling proves the impossibility of deriving nature from mere principles of the subjective. In addition, he finds a contradiction in Fichte between his understanding of nature and the meaning that he ascribes to it, namely the meaning of the delay or obstacle necessary for the activity of the spirit and for the realization of its freedom. If nature does not have any external reality, but is entirely created by the cognizing "", then it cannot be an object of activity. “On such a nature,” Schelling wittily remarks, “it is also impossible to influence, just as it is impossible to hurt yourself on the corner of a geometric figure.” If in the first two periods Schelling's philosophy represented a peculiar concept of Fichte-Spinoz's principles, then in the third it is, in addition, a reflection of the systems of Plato, Bruno and Leibniz.

Philosophy of Identity

The philosophy of identity is the focus of Schelling's worldview, foreshadowed already at the previous stages of his philosophical development and causing his mystical completion. At the same time, this is the most vague and incomprehensible section of his philosophy. An attempt to connect and unite the main ideas the greatest philosophers into a single whole could be realized only under the cover of extreme abstraction and with the help of wandering concepts of “subject-object”, “ideal-real”, etc.

Absolute identity is Schelling's principle, reconciling two basic and at the same time opposing views: dogmatism and criticism. In the first, nature is recognized as independent of knowledge; in the second, it is fully understood as a product of knowledge and at the same time loses its objective reality. Both views contain truth.

At the heart of nature is really knowledge, but not relative, human, but absolute knowledge, or, more precisely, self-knowledge. It completely eliminates the difference between the objective and the subjective, the ideal and the real, and therefore this knowledge is at the same time absolute identity. Schelling also calls it Reason and All-Eine. It is at the same time a completely finished, eternal and infinite whole. The whole world of finite things has its source in this absolute identity, from the depths of which it develops in a continuous self-creative process.

The development of the world proceeds according to the degrees of differentiation of the objective and the subjective. The objective and the subjective are inherent in all finite things as necessary factors. They relate to each other as mutually negative quantities, and therefore an increase in one is associated with a decrease in the other. The essence of every finite thing is entirely determined by the predominance of one or another factor. All finite things form various forms or types of manifestation of absolute identity, containing certain degrees of subjective and objective. Schelling calls these types potencies.

The world is a gradation of potencies. Each potency represents a necessary link in the world. Schelling distinguishes between two main series of potencies: one, with a predominance of the subjective, has an ideal character, the other, with a predominance of the objective, is real. Both series in their absolute value are exactly the same, but opposite in terms of increasing factors of the ideal and the real. Schelling schematizes these series in the form of two oppositely directed lines emanating from the point of indifference; at the ends of these lines are placed the poles of objective and subjective detection. In this construction it is easy to discover Schelling's favorite diagram of a magnet. Each potency is a manifestation of the eternal ideas of the absolute; the latter are to the former as natura naturans is to nature naturata.

Schelling likens ideas as eternal unities in the depths of the absolute to monads. The same assimilation of the concept of the monad to the Platonic ideas was once made by Leibniz himself. In terms of the idea-monad-potency, united by the highest principle of absolute identity, Schelling tries to combine the philosophy of Plato, Leibniz and Spinoza with his natural philosophy. It is quite natural that the philosophy of identity, representing the synthesis of the ideas of the three named philosophers, was at the same time the renewal of the worldview of Bruno, who was a historical step from Plato to Spinoza and Leibniz.

In honor of him, Schelling wrote the Bruno dialogue, which is a modification of the system of identity, originally set out more geometrico in Darstellung meines Systems der Philosophie. In Bruno, the principle of identity is characterized from somewhat different points of view. The coincidence of the ideal and the real in the absolute is equated with the unity of the concept and contemplation. This higher unity is the idea or thinking intuition; it combines the general and the particular, the genus and the individual. The identity of contemplation and the concept is at the same time the identity of beauty and truth, the finite and the infinite. Infinite or, what is the same, absolute identity represents in Schelling an ideological whole, devoid of any kind of differentiation, but at the same time being the source of everything differentiated. This is the abyss of being in which all outlines are lost and to which Hegel's mocking remark refers that in it all cats are gray.

The fourth period

The question of the emergence of the finite from the bowels of the infinite belongs already to the philosophy of religion. The question is how to understand the relation of the lower, that is, the material nature, to God. The material can be opposed to God as a completely independent principle or derived from the essence of God through the concept of emanation, as in the case of the Neoplatonists. Schelling denies both of these methods.

The problem of the relation of evil to God can have a dualistic resolution - in which evil is understood as an independent principle - and an immanent one. In the latter case, the culprit of evil is God himself. Schelling reconciles both these points of view. Evil is possible only with the assumption of freedom; but freedom can only be in God. On the other hand, the root of evil cannot be in the person of God. Schelling eliminates this antinomy by accepting something in God that is not God himself.

This relationship is particularly clearly elucidated by Schelling in his polemical "Monument" to the philosophy of Jacobi. Against the criticism of Jacobi, who accused him of pantheism, Schelling puts forward the argument that his pantheism is a necessary basis for the development of a theistic worldview on it. A theology that begins with a personal God gives a concept that is devoid of any basis and definite content. As a result, such a theology can only be a theology of feeling or ignorance. On the contrary, the philosophy of identity is the only possible source of philosophical knowledge of God, since it gives the concept of God, quite accessible to the mind, as a personality developing from its fundamental principle. Theism is impossible without the concept of a living personal God, but the concept of a living God is impossible without understanding God as developing, and development presupposes the nature from which God develops. Thus theism must have its foundation in naturalism.

The true philosophy of religion is a combination of both one and the other point of view. The self-discovery of God proceeds in steps and consists in the inner "transmutation" or enlightenment of the dark principle. Finite things represent various kinds and forms of this transmutation. In all of them there is a certain degree of enlightenment. The highest degree of this enlightenment consists in the mind or universal will (Universalwille), which brings all cosmic forces to an inner unity. Opposed to this universal will is the private or individual will of individual creatures, which is rooted in its foundation other than God. The separate will of individual beings and the universal will represent two moral poles. In the predominance of the former over the latter lies evil.

Man represents the stage in which the universal will first appears. In it, for the first time, there appears the possibility of that bifurcation of the individual and universal will, in which evil is revealed. This possible bifurcation is a consequence of human freedom. Thus, evil in human nature consists in asserting one's separateness, in striving from the original center of the absolute to the periphery. Schelling disputes the opinion of Blessed Augustine and Leibniz that evil is a purely negative concept of the lack or absence of good. In contrast to this view, he sees in evil a positive force directed against the force of good.

Schelling confirms this by saying that if evil consisted only in the lack of good, then it could be found only in the most insignificant beings. Meanwhile, in reality, evil becomes possible only for the most perfect beings and often goes hand in hand with the discovery of great powers, as, for example, in the devil. “It is not earth that opposes heaven, but hell,” says Schelling, “and like the enthusiasm for good, there is also the inspiration of evil.” Although evil is a force hostile to God, but only through it is the self-discovery of God possible. God can be revealed only in overcoming his opposite, that is, evil, for in general, every essence is revealed only in its opposite: light is in darkness, love is in hatred, unity is in duality.

Representing the natural desire, directed in the direction opposite to the universal will, evil is conquered by the act of renunciation of one's individuality. In this self-denial, as in fire, the human will must purify itself in order to become a participant in the universal will. In order to defeat evil, it is necessary first of all to overcome the dark beginning of elemental nature in oneself. Standing at the climax of nature, a person naturally tends to fall back into the abyss, just as a person who has climbed to the top of a mountain becomes dizzy and threatens to fall. But the main weakness of a person is in the fear of the good, for the good requires self-denial and the mortification of one's selfishness. However, man by nature is able to overcome this fear and desire for evil. This ability is freedom.

By freedom, Schelling understands not the random possibility of choice in each this case, but internal self-determination. The basis of this self-determination is an intelligible character, that is, that prius in human individuality, which from time immemorial determines a given human constitution and the actions arising from it. An intelligible character is that eternal act of the individual will by which its other manifestations are determined. The primary will underlying the intelligible character is quite free, but the acts in which it manifests necessarily follow each other and are determined by its original nature. Thus, in the development of an intelligible character, freedom is combined with necessity (indeterminism and determinism).

In this sense, Schelling establishes the notion of inherent evil or good, reminiscent of the Calvinistic idea of moral predestination. Man's guilt in the evil he discovers lies not so much in his conscious acts as in the pre-conscious self-determination of his intelligible character. Schelling considers the question of the personality of God in close connection with the question of God's attitude to evil. The source of evil is the dark nature in God. It is opposed by the ideal principle in God or the mind - the combination of these two principles is the personality of God. The ideological beginning is found in love. The blind will to self-begetting and the free will of love are the main activities of God, united in His person.

By virtue of this connection, the dark nature, since it is in God, is not yet evil. It becomes evil only in the nature of finite things, where it does not obey the light principle and the highest unity. Thus evil only incidentally (begleitungsweise) develops in the self-discovery of God, and although rooted in His dark nature, cannot be recognized as an act of God. It is the misuse of the powers of God, which in His Person are absolute good. The unification of the dark or elemental and ideological principle in God occurs through love in the deepest fundamental principle of God (Urgrund), which is His absolute Personality. Thus, God himself is subject to development and goes through three main phases of his being: the fundamental principle, the spirit and the absolute personality. A detailed study of the phases or aeons of God was undertaken in the remaining unfinished work "Weltalter". Here Schelling applies the concept of potency to the periods of God's development.

Schelling's Positive Philosophy

Schelling's positive philosophy represents, by his own admission, the completion of his previous negative philosophy. The point of view developed by Schelling in this final period of his development did not have a special literary expression and was made public through lectures given at the University of Berlin, and in addition - in the posthumous edition of Schelling's works based on the papers he left.

Schelling defines negative philosophy as a rationalistic worldview that comprehends the world in terms of reason. Such a philosophy was his own system, as well as Hegel's idealism, which, according to him, is only a detailed development of the ideas he expressed. In contrast, positive philosophy is the comprehension of the world not in its rational essence, but in its very real existence. This comprehension is no longer based on rational activity, but on intuitive processes that constitute the content of religion. That is why positive philosophy directs its attention to those areas of human consciousness in which truth is obtained in an irrational way, namely, to religious-artistic contemplation and revelation.

According to these two sources of positive truth, positive philosophy consists in the philosophy of mythology and the philosophy of revelation. Its subject is, firstly, the theogonic process, and secondly, the history of God's self-discovery in human consciousness. Here Schelling, in a slightly modified and more vague form, repeats the previously stated theory of three main points or potencies in the existence of God.

These three potencies correspond to the three Persons of the divine nature:

God Spirit.

Of all finite beings, only man is in direct interaction with God. This interaction is expressed in religion. Schelling distinguishes in religion the preparatory stage, or the mythology of paganism, and the religion of revelation, that is, Christianity. Mythology is a natural religion in which religious truth is revealed in a natural process of development, just as in natural development nature gradually reveals its ideological meaning.

In mythology, Schelling distinguishes three stages, according to the degree of overcoming the peripheral plurality of polytheism by the central unity of monotheism. In the religion of revelation, of which Christ himself is the chief figure, Schelling also sees three stages:

preexistence,
incarnation and
reconciliation.

The same trinity is established by Schelling in relation to the historical development of Christianity, which forms three epochs according to the names of the main apostles.

The first age, Petra, marks the outward and enforced unity of the church.
The age of Paul breaks this unity and introduces into Christianity the spirit of freedom.
The future age of John will restore the lost unity on the basis of freedom and inner enlightenment.

Peter is primarily the representative of God the Father, Paul the Son, John the Spirit. The positive philosophy of Schelling is essentially nothing but the philosophy of religion. Its difference from studies on the relation of the world to God that immediately preceded it consisted only in the fact that in them religious questions were decided mainly on the basis of purely philosophical speculation, while in positive philosophy, philosophical research includes the content historical religions and gives this content a rational interpretation and form. In fact, the negative philosophy of the last period was also imbued with the spirit of Christianity; it was under the influence of Christianity de facto, while positive philosophy was subject to this influence de jure and ex principio.

Significance of Schelling's philosophy

Schelling did not leave a specific school that could be designated by his name. His system, which represented the integration of three relatively alien views

subjective idealism,
objective naturalism and
religious mysticism,

She could maintain her somewhat violent unity only in the horizon of his mind and in the peculiar form of his presentation.

It is quite natural, therefore, that Schelling's numerous researchers are adherents of only certain epochs of his philosophical activity. The main successor of the central worldview of Schelling, namely the system of identity, in its ideological form, was Hegel, Skvortsov. Finally, the revival of Schelling's religious and mystical aspirations cannot but be noted in the works of Vl. S. Solovyov, who in his story about the Antichrist gave a vivid picture of the restoration of the unity of the church by the enlightened elder John.

The significance of Schelling's philosophy lies in carrying out the idea that the world is based on a living ideological process, which has its true reflection in human cognition. This idea is partly a modification of the basic position of rationalism of the 17th and 18th centuries. about the identity of logical and real relations. However, Schelling's substantiation and development of it has very significant differences. Reason and external reality, although they are in mutual correspondence among the rationalists, are really alien to each other and are coordinated only through the mediation of God. In Schelling, rationality (or ideological) and reality mutually penetrate each other, as a result of which the act of cognition is a natural manifestation of this natural identity. At the same time, Schelling's concept of freedom has a much wider application than that of the rationalists.

Nor can Schelling's idealism be considered abolished through Hegel's idealism, from which it differs in greater vitality. If in the detailing of concepts, in their more rigorous and distinct substantiation, absolute idealism undoubtedly represents a step forward in comparison with the somewhat vague idealism of Schelling, but the latter remained completely free from Hegel's fundamental error, which consisted in reducing the real without a trace to the ideal. Schelling's real only contains the ideal as its highest meaning, but it also possesses irrational concreteness and vitality. Hence, in Schelling, the deviation of beings from the absolute norms of rationality and goodness is quite understandable.

In general, the theory of the origin of evil and its relation to God is one of the most valuable and deeply thought-out sections of Schelling's system, which has enduring significance for the philosophy of religion.

The most important works

"Ueber die Möglichkeit einer Form der Philosophie überhaupt" (1794);
"Vom Ich als Princip der Philosophie" (1795);
"Philosophische Briefe über Dogmatismus und Criticismus" (1795);
"Abhandlungen zur Erläuterung des Idealismus der Wissenschaftslehre" (1796-97);
"Ideen zur Philosophie der Natur" (1797);
"Von der Weltseele" (1798);
"Erster Entwurf eines Systems der Naturphilosophie" (1799);
"Einleitung zum Entwurf" (1799);
"System des transcendentalen Idealismus" (1800);
"Allgemeine Deduction des dynamischen Processes" (1800);
"Ueber den wahren Begriff der Naturphilosophie" (1801);
"Darstellung meines Systems der Philosophie" (1801);
Bruno. Ein Gespräch" (1802);
"Fernere Darstellungen aus dem System der Philosophien" (1802);
"Philosophie der Kunst" (lectures delivered at Jena in 1802-1803 and at Würzburg in 1804-1805; published posthumously).

Important are:

"Zusätze" to the second edition of "Ideen" in 1803 and
"Abhandlung über das Verhältniss des Realen und Idealen in der Natur", added to 2nd ed. "Weltseele" (1806);
"Vorlesungen über die Methode des akademischen Studiums" (1803);
"Philosophie und Religion" (1804);
"Darlegung des wahren Verhältnisses Naturphilosophie zur verbesserten Fichteschen Lehre" (1806);
"Ueber das Verhältniss der bildenden Künste zur Natur" (a solemn speech delivered at the Munich Academy of Arts in 1807);
"Philosophische Untersuchungen über das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit" (1809);
"Denkmal der Schrift Jacobis von den göttlichen Dingen" (1812);
"Weltalter" (posthumously);
"Ueber die Gottheiten von Samothrake" (1815);
"Ueber den Zusammenhang der Natur mit der Geisterwelt" (posthumously);
"Die Philosophie der Mythologie und der Offenbarung" (Positive Philosophy - posthumous ed.).

In addition, Schelling wrote many small articles and reviews published in the journals he published and included in the posthumous edition of his works, undertaken by his son (1856-1861, 14 vols.). It also included Schelling's numerous solemn speeches.

// Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms

Influenced Hegel, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Peirce, Aurobindo, Schopenhauer Awards Quotes at Wikiquote Media at Wikimedia Commons

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling(German Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, January 27 - August 20) - German philosopher, representative of classical German philosophy. He was close to the Jena romantics. An outstanding representative of idealism in new philosophy.

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Biography

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling was born in the Württemberg town of Leonberg into the family of a Protestant priest.

From 1803 to 1806, Schelling taught at the University of Würzburg, after which he moved to Munich, where he became a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

In Schelling's lectures given in Berlin in 1842 and published by Paulus, there is already a complete recognition of the system of absolute idealism as a remarkable completion of his own philosophy of identity. Besides Jena, Schelling was a professor at Würzburg, Munich, Erlangen and Berlin. The end of Schelling's life was overshadowed by the lawsuit against Paulus, who published his lectures at the University of Berlin without Schelling's permission. The process ended not in favor of Schelling, since the court found it difficult to recognize the publication of lectures, associated with a critical discussion, as a "reprint" provided for by law. Insulted, Schelling stopped lecturing forever. Last years Schelling spent his old age surrounded by his faithful friends and a large family that remained to him (three years after the death of his first wife, he entered into a second marriage).

A year before his death, Schelling received from King Maximilian II, his former student, a sonnet dedicated to him, the final stanza of which very aptly characterizes the wide and lofty flight of his philosophical thought:

Children

Schelling's philosophy

General characteristics of creative periods

Schelling's philosophy does not represent a completely unified and complete whole, but rather several systems that he consistently developed during his life.

The first period in the development of Schelling's philosophy consists in the study of the epistemological problem of the basic principle of cognition and the possibility of cognition from the point of view of criticism of the modified Fichte. The main task of the second period is the construction of nature as a self-developing spiritual organism. The identity system that characterizes the third period consists in revealing the idea of the absolute as the identity of the main opposites of the real and the ideal, the finite and the infinite. In the fourth period, Schelling sets out his philosophy of religion - the theory of the world falling away from God and returning to God through Christianity. Adjacent to the same period, as an addition, is the "positive" philosophy, known only from the lectures given by Schelling. It presents the philosophy of religion not as a subject rational cognition but as an intuitively discovered truth. From this point of view, positive philosophy is at the same time the philosophy of mythology and revelation.

First period

If things in themselves exist, we come to that fundamental inconsistency of the miraculous coincidence of the world order with the laws of reason, which Schelling so aptly exposed. Obviously, the only possible solution to the dilemma is the second, which consists in the assertion that things do not exist in themselves. What Schelling did not notice was that by "liberating" criticism from contradiction, he himself was actually freeing himself from the influence of the historical Kant and, destroying the paths of criticism, passed on to free metaphysics. So, Schelling argues, objects do not exist outside the spirit, but arise in the spirit, in a self-creative spiritual process. In this process, it is necessary to distinguish between the unconscious or preparatory stage and the consciousness that follows it. What is created in the unconscious process appears to the awakened consciousness as something given from the outside - as the external world or nature. Nature develops completely freely. Pure and autonomous will is that spiritual principle which is at the basis of this development.

Second period

The appeal to natural philosophy followed not only from philosophical problems: it was also required by the development of the empirical sciences and generally met all the intellectual interests of that time. The obscure and mysterious phenomena of electricity, magnetism and chemical affinity attracted at the end of the 18th century. general attention. At the same time, Galvani published his discovery, the doctrine of phlogiston was replaced by Lavoisier's oxygen theory, and spread in the medical world of Germany excitability theory en en John Brown . All this required a unification and a common explanation.

Schelling's natural philosophy had several expressions in numerous writings, written one after another in the period from up to 1802. The first compositions are in the nature of sketches or sketches. As his worldview developed, Schelling supplemented and modified the previously expressed views and expounded his theory in new, more complete and processed forms. In his last natural-philosophical writings, a new phase of his philosophical development is already emerging, expressed in the philosophy of identity.

Schelling's task was to trace the development of nature from its lowest levels to the highest manifestations of conscious life. All nature for Schelling is a dormant intelligentsia, coming to full awakening in the human spirit. Man is the highest goal of nature. “Ich bin der Gott, den sie im Busen hegt, der Geist, der sich in Allem bewegt,” exclaims Schelling in the above-mentioned poem.

The basic principle of Schelling's natural philosophy

The basic principle of Schelling's natural philosophy is unity. From the point of view of this principle, all nature is, as it were, one infinitely branching organism. The internal forces that determine the development of the various parts of this organism are the same everywhere. Only through mutual complication and combinations do they give such diverse external manifestations of nature. There are no sharp boundaries between inorganic and organic nature. Schelling resolutely rejects the point of view of vitalism, which assumes, for the explanation of vital processes, special vital forces. Inorganic nature itself produces organic nature. At the heart of both one and the other lies a single life process. The source of this process is the world soul, which animates all nature. The essence of life is the interaction of forces. But interaction exists only where opposing forces meet. Therefore, this opposition or duality must also be recognized in what constitutes the basis of life, that is, in the soul of the world. But this duality should not be understood as an absolute beginning; on the contrary, it is rooted in the unity of the world soul and eternally strives for synthesis or reconciliation, which is realized in polarity.

Duality and polarity are the universal principles of nature and all development. Every action arises from the collision of opposites, every product of nature is conditioned by oppositely directed activities, related to each other, as positive to negative. Matter is the result of repulsive and attractive forces; magnetism is expressed in the opposites of the poles; electricity reveals the same opposition of positive and negative; chemical affinity is most pronounced in contrast to acids and alkalis; all organic life, according to the theory of John Brown, consists in the ratio of opposite forces of irritability and irritation; Finally, consciousness itself is conditioned by the opposition between the objective and the subjective.

The first task of natural philosophy

In the very construction of matter, he notes three points.

The first consists in the balance of two opposing forces at one point; in both directions from this point there is an increase in oppositely directed forces. This relationship of forces is magnetism. In the construction of matter, magnetism appears as a linear force and conditions the first spatial dimension.
The second point is the separation of forces connected in the first at one point. This separation makes it possible for the forces of attraction and repulsion to propagate at an angle to the original line of magnetism. This moment causes the formation of the second dimension. It corresponds to the power of electricity. If magnetism should be called a linear force, then electricity is a surface force.
The synthesis of magnetism and electricity forms the third moment, at which the line of magnetism crosses the surface of propagation of electricity. As a result, all three spatial dimensions are constructed.

Transition from inorganic to organic nature

Influence of natural philosophy

Under the undoubted influence of Schelling, electromagnetism was discovered by Oersted in 1820. The geologist Steffens, the biologist Oken, the comparative anatomist K. G. Carus, the physiologist Burdach, the pathologist Kieser, the plant physiologist Ness von Esenbeck, the physicians Schelfer and Walter, and the psychologist Schubert are among Schelling's collaborators and followers in this period.

The influence of Schelling's natural philosophy on medicine was especially strong. The natural-philosophical principle of irritability turned out to be completely consistent with the popular theory of that time Brown en en. Under the influence of two adherents of Schelling - Roeschlaube and Markus in Bamberg - a whole galaxy of young doctors appeared who were fond of Schelling's ideas and carried them out in their dissertations. Whether through the fault of these zealous followers or due to the lack of development of Schelling's own views at that time, his ideas received rather humorous reproduction in medical dissertations. They said that "the organism stands under the scheme of a curved line", that "blood is a fluid magnet", "conception is a strong electric shock", etc. As expected, Schelling's enemies were not slow to take advantage of the opportunity and take all these absurdities at the expense of Schelling himself.

Third period

The system of transcendental idealism is divided, like Kant's three critics, into three parts:

in the first, theoretical one, the process of objectification is studied, which occurs through the reproduction by the mind of the nature of the objective;
in the second, practical one, the creation of the objective in free action;
in the third, aesthetic, - the process of artistic creation, in which the opposition of the theoretical and practical principles finds its highest synthesis.

The first epoch begins with the emergence of sensation. The sensation is due to one's own self-restraint, setting a limit to one's "I". It is the consciousness of this limitation, which appears to consciousness as something external.
Sensation, conscious as an external object, clearly distinguishable from the subject, turns into productive contemplation, which marks the second era.
The third era is reflection, that is, free consideration of the products of contemplation, turning at will from one object to another.

According to Schelling, this course of development of the objective in consciousness fully corresponds to the development of nature, which is revealed in natural philosophy. Just as self-limitation is the starting point here, so there the dynamic process arises from the limitation of the repulsive force of attraction. In one case, the product is sensation, in the other, matter. Similarly, all degrees of knowledge correspond to the degrees of nature. The reason for this correspondence and coincidence lies in the fact that both processes are rooted in the same essence and are in a certain sense identical. The possibility of free action is due to the ability to absolutely abstract from all objects. Through this abstraction, the "I" becomes aware of itself as an independent, self-active principle. The resulting activity of the practical "I" becomes purposeful. Volitional activity is directed to individuals external to us. It is in this relationship with other beings that it receives its varied content.

The participation of divine power in the historical process is manifested in three ways:

first of all, in the form of the blind power of fate, ruling over people; such is the first fatalistic period, distinguished by its tragic character.
In the second period, to which modernity also belongs, the dominant principle is mechanical regularity.
In the third period, divine power will manifest as providence. “When this period comes, then there will be God,” says Schelling enigmatically.

The connection between natural philosophy and Fichte's subjective idealism

This opposition was most clearly expressed in Schelling's polemical essay against Fichte: Ueber das Verhältniss der Naturphilosophie zur verbesserten Fichteschen Lehre. Here Schelling proves the impossibility of deriving nature from mere principles of the subjective. In addition, he finds a contradiction in Fichte between his understanding of nature and the meaning that he ascribes to it, namely the meaning of the delay or obstacle necessary for the activity of the spirit and for the realization of its freedom. If nature does not have any external reality, but is entirely created by the cognizing "", then it cannot be an object of activity. “On such a nature,” Schelling wittily remarks, “it is just as impossible to influence, as it is impossible to hurt yourself on the corner of a geometric figure.” If in the first two periods Schelling's philosophy represented a peculiar concept of Fichte-Spinoz's principles, then in the third it is, in addition, a reflection of the systems of Plato, Bruno and Leibniz.

Philosophy of Identity

The philosophy of identity is the focus of Schelling's worldview, foreshadowed already at the previous stages of his philosophical development and causing his mystical completion. At the same time, this is the most vague and incomprehensible section of his philosophy. An attempt to connect and unite the main ideas of the greatest philosophers into a single whole could be carried out only under the cover of extreme abstraction and with the help of wandering concepts of "subject-object", "ideal-real", etc.

At the heart of nature is really knowledge, but not relative, human, but absolute knowledge or, more precisely, self-knowledge. It completely eliminates the difference between the objective and the subjective, the ideal and the real, and therefore this knowledge is at the same time absolute identity. Schelling also calls it Reason and All-Eine. It is at the same time a completely finished, eternal and infinite whole. The whole world of finite things has its source in this absolute identity, from the depths of which it develops in a continuous self-creative process.

The world is a gradation of potencies. Each potency represents a necessary link in the world. Schelling distinguishes between two main series of potencies: one, with a predominance of the subjective, has an ideal character, the other, with a predominance of the objective, is real. Both series in their absolute value are exactly the same, but opposite in terms of increasing factors of the ideal and the real. Schelling schematizes these series in the form of two oppositely directed lines emanating from the point of indifference; at the ends of these lines are placed the poles of objective and subjective detection. In this construction it is easy to discover Schelling's favorite scheme of the magnet. Each potency is a manifestation of the eternal ideas of the absolute; the latter are to the former as natura naturans is to nature naturata.

In honor of him, Schelling wrote the Bruno dialogue, which is a modification of the system of identity, originally set out more geometrico in Darstellung meines Systems der Philosophie. In Bruno, the principle of identity is characterized from somewhat different points of view. The coincidence of the ideal and the real in the absolute is equated with the unity of the concept and contemplation. This higher unity is the idea or thinking intuition; it combines the general and the particular, genus and individual. The identity of contemplation and the concept is at the same time the identity of beauty and truth, the finite and the infinite. Infinite or, what is the same, absolute identity represents in Schelling an ideological whole, devoid of any kind of differentiation, but at the same time being the source of everything differentiated. This is the abyss of being in which all outlines are lost and to which Hegel's mocking remark refers that in it all cats are gray.

The fourth period

Man represents the stage in which the universal will first appears. In it, for the first time, there appears the possibility of that bifurcation of the individual and universal will, in which evil is revealed. This possible bifurcation is a consequence of human freedom. Thus, evil in human nature consists in asserting one's separateness, in striving from the original center of the absolute to the periphery. Schelling disputes the opinion of Blessed Augustine and Leibniz that evil is a purely negative concept of lack or absence of good. In contrast to this view, he sees in evil a positive force directed against the force of good.

By freedom, Schelling does not understand the random possibility of choice in each given case, but internal self-determination. The basis of this self-determination is an intelligible character, that is, that prius in human individuality, which from time immemorial determines a given human constitution and the actions arising from it. An intelligible character is that eternal act of the individual will by which its other manifestations are determined. The primary will underlying the intelligible character is quite free, but the acts in which it manifests necessarily follow each other and are determined by its original nature. Thus, in the development of an intelligible character, freedom is combined with necessity (indeterminism and determinism).

Schelling's Positive Philosophy

religions. Schelling distinguishes in religion the preparatory stage, or the mythology of paganism, and the religion of revelation, that is, Christianity. Mythology is a natural religion in which religious truth is revealed in the natural process of development, just as its ideological meaning is gradually revealed in the natural development of nature.

preexistence,
incarnation and
reconciliation.

The same trinity is established by Schelling in relation to the historical development of Christianity, which forms three epochs according to the names of the main apostles.

The first age, Petra, marks the outward and enforced unity of the church.
The age of Paul breaks this unity and introduces into Christianity the spirit of freedom.
The future age of John will restore the lost unity on the basis of freedom and inner enlightenment.

Peter is primarily the representative of God the Father, Paul the Son, John the Spirit. The positive philosophy of Schelling is essentially nothing but the philosophy of religion. Its difference from studies on the relation of the world to God that immediately preceded it consisted only in the fact that in them religious questions were decided mainly on the basis of purely philosophical speculation, while in positive philosophy philosophical research includes the content of historical religions and gives this content a rational interpretation. and form. In fact, the negative philosophy of the last period was also imbued with the spirit of Christianity; it was under the influence of Christianity de facto, while positive philosophy was subject to this influence de jure and ex principio.

Significance of Schelling's philosophy

Schelling did not leave a specific school that could be designated by his name. His system, which represented the integration of three relatively alien views

subjective idealism,
objective naturalism and
religious mysticism,

It could maintain its somewhat violent unity only in the horizon of his mind and in the peculiar form of his presentation.

The significance of Schelling's philosophy lies in the realization of the idea that the world is based on a living ideological process, which has its true reflection in human knowledge. This idea is partly a modification of the basic position of rationalism of the 17th and 18th centuries. about the identity of logical and real relations. However, Schelling's substantiation and development of it has very significant differences. Reason and external reality, although they are in mutual correspondence among the rationalists, are really alien to each other and are coordinated only through the mediation of God. In Schelling, rationality (or ideological) and reality mutually penetrate each other, as a result of which the act of cognition is a natural manifestation of this natural identity. At the same time, Schelling's concept of freedom has a much wider application than that of the rationalists.

"("Von der Weltseele", 1798);

"The first sketch of a system of natural philosophy" ("Erster Entwurf eines Systems der Naturphilosophie", 1799);

"Einleitung zum Entwurf" (1799);

« System transcendental idealism” (“System des transcendentalen Idealismus”, 1800);

"The General Deduction of the Dynamic Process" ("Allgemeine Deduction des dynamischen Processes", 1800);

"On the true concept of natural philosophy" ("Ueber den wahren Begriff der Naturphilosophie", 1801);

"Exposition of my philosophical system" ("Darstellung meines Systems der Philosophie" 1801);

Bruno. Ein Gespräch" (1802);

"Fernere Darstellungen aus dem System der Philosophien" (1802);

“Philosophy art” (“Philosophie der Kunst” - lectures given in Jena in 1802-1803 and in Würzburg in 1804-1805; published posthumously).

Important are:

"Zusätze" to the second edition of "Ideen" in 1803 and
"Abhandlung über das Verhältniss des Realen und Idealen in der Natur", added to 2nd ed. "Weltseele" (1806);
"Vorlesungen über die Methode des akademischen Studiums" (1803);
"Philosophie und Religion" (1804);
"Darlegung des wahren Verhältnisses Naturphilosophie zur verbesserten Fichteschen Lehre" (1806);
"Ueber das Verhältniss der bildenden Künste zur Natur" (a solemn speech delivered at the Munich Academy of Arts in 1807);
"Philosophische Untersuchungen über das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit" (1809);
"Denkmal der Schrift Jacobis von den göttlichen Dingen" (1812);
"Weltalter" (posthumously);
"Ueber die Gottheiten von Samothrake" (1815);
"Ueber den Zusammenhang der Natur mit der Geisterwelt" (posthumously);
"Die Philosophie der Mythologie und der Offenbarung" (Positive Philosophy - posthumous ed.).

Notes

Publication of works translated into Russian

	IN

As opposed to grammatical and dogmatic. In essence, Schelling outlines here that historical-critical method, which subsequently received a detailed development in the New Tübingen school.

In the preface to The Life of Jesus, Strauss notes Schelling as his predecessor. At the university, Schelling did not remain a stranger to the influence of public sentiment. The trends of the French Revolution and the enthusiasm of the emerging romanticism found a lively response in him and in his circle of friends. As a translator of the Marseillaise, Schelling receives a severe reprimand from the Duke of Württemberg, who came to Tübingen to curb the dispersed youth.

"Allgemeine Uebersicht der neuesten philosophischen Literatur",
"Ideen"
"Von der Weltseele".

In the last two, Schelling's natural-philosophical worldview is already outlined.

Second period

Schelling's natural philosophy had several expressions in numerous works, written one after the other in the period from to r. The first works are in the nature of sketches or sketches. As his worldview developed, Schelling supplemented and modified the previously expressed views and expounded his theory in new, more complete and processed forms. In his last natural-philosophical writings, a new phase of his philosophical development is already emerging, expressed in the philosophy of identity.

Schelling's task was to trace the development of nature from its lowest levels to the highest manifestations of conscious life. All nature for Schelling is a dormant intelligentsia, coming to full awakening in the human spirit. Man is the highest goal of nature. “Ich bin der Gott, den sie im Busen hegt, der Geist, der sich in Allem bewegt,” exclaims Schelling in the above-mentioned poem.

The basic principle of Schelling's natural philosophy

The basic principle of Schelling's natural philosophy is unity. From the point of view of this principle, all nature is, as it were, one infinitely branching organism. The internal forces that determine the development of the various parts of this organism are the same everywhere. Only through mutual complication and combinations do they give such diverse external manifestations of nature. There are no sharp boundaries between inorganic and organic nature. Schelling resolutely rejects the point of view of vitalism, which assumes, for the explanation of vital processes, special vital forces. Inorganic nature itself produces organic nature. At the heart of both one and the other lies a single life process. The source of this process is the world soul, which animates all nature. The essence of life is the interaction of forces. But interaction exists only where opposing forces meet. Therefore, this opposition or duality must also be recognized in what constitutes the basis of life, that is, in the soul of the world. But this duality should not be understood as an absolute beginning; on the contrary, it is rooted in the unity of the world soul and eternally strives for synthesis or reconciliation, which is realized in polarity.

The first task of natural philosophy

In the very construction of matter, he notes three points.

The first consists in the balance of two opposing forces at one point; in both directions from this point there is an increase in oppositely directed forces. This relationship of forces is magnetism. In the construction of matter, magnetism appears as a linear force and conditions the first spatial dimension.
The second point is the separation of forces connected in the first at one point. This separation makes it possible for the forces of attraction and repulsion to propagate at an angle to the original line of magnetism. This moment causes the formation of the second dimension. It corresponds to the power of electricity. If magnetism should be called a linear force, then electricity is a surface force.
The synthesis of magnetism and electricity forms the third moment, at which the line of magnetism crosses the surface of propagation of electricity. As a result, all three spatial dimensions are constructed.

Transition from inorganic to organic nature

productive force.

Influence of natural philosophy

Third period

The system of transcendental idealism is divided, like Kant's three critics, into three parts:

in the first, theoretical one, the process of objectivation is studied, which occurs through the reproduction by the mind of the nature of the objective;
in the second, practical one, the creation of the objective in free action;
in the third, aesthetic, - the process of artistic creation, in which the opposition of the theoretical and practical principles finds its highest synthesis.

The first epoch begins with the emergence of sensation. The sensation is due to one's own self-restraint, setting a limit to one's "I". It is the consciousness of this limitation, which appears to consciousness as something external.
Sensation, conscious as an external object, clearly distinguishable from the subject, turns into productive contemplation, which marks the second era.
The third era is reflection, that is, free consideration of the products of contemplation, turning at will from one object to another.

According to Schelling, this course of development of the objective in consciousness fully corresponds to the development of nature, which is revealed in natural philosophy. Just as self-limitation is the starting point here, so there the dynamic process arises from the limitation of the repulsive force of attraction. In one case, the product is sensation, in the other, matter. Similarly, all degrees of knowledge correspond to the degrees of nature. The reason for this correspondence and coincidence lies in the fact that both processes are rooted in the same essence and are in a certain sense identical. The possibility of free action is due to the ability to absolutely abstract from all objects. Through this abstraction, the "I" becomes aware of itself as an independent, self-active principle. The resulting activity of the practical "I" becomes purposeful. Volitional activity is directed to individuals external to us. It is in this relationship with other beings that it receives its varied content.

The participation of divine power in the historical process is manifested in three ways:

first of all, in the form of the blind power of fate, ruling over people; such is the first fatalistic period, distinguished by its tragic character.
In the second period, to which modernity also belongs, the dominant principle is mechanical regularity.
In the third period, divine power will manifest as providence. “When this period comes, then there will be God,” says Schelling enigmatically.

The connection between natural philosophy and Fichte's subjective idealism

Philosophy of Identity

The philosophy of identity is the focus of Schelling's worldview, foreshadowed already at the previous stages of his philosophical development and causing his mystical completion. At the same time, this is the most vague and incomprehensible section of his philosophy. An attempt to connect and unite the main ideas of the greatest philosophers into a single whole could be carried out only under the cover of extreme abstraction and with the help of wandering concepts of "subject-object", "ideal-real", etc.

The fourth period

Schelling's Positive Philosophy

These three potencies correspond to the three Persons of the divine nature:

God Spirit.

Of all finite beings, only man is in direct interaction with God. This interaction is expressed in religion. Schelling distinguishes in religion the preparatory stage, or the mythology of paganism, and the religion of revelation, that is, Christianity. Mythology is a natural religion in which religious truth is revealed in the natural process of development, just as its ideological meaning is gradually revealed in the natural development of nature.

preexistence,
incarnation and
reconciliation.

The same trinity is established by Schelling in relation to the historical development of Christianity, which forms three epochs according to the names of the main apostles.

The first age, Petra, marks the outward and enforced unity of the church.
The age of Paul breaks this unity and introduces into Christianity the spirit of freedom.
The future age of John will restore the lost unity on the basis of freedom and inner enlightenment.

Peter is primarily the representative of God the Father, Paul the Son, John the Spirit. The positive philosophy of Schelling is essentially nothing but the philosophy of religion. Its difference from studies on the relation of the world to God that immediately preceded it consisted only in the fact that in them religious questions were decided mainly on the basis of purely philosophical speculation, while in positive philosophy philosophical research includes the content of historical religions and gives this content a rational interpretation. and form. In fact, the negative philosophy of the last period was also imbued with the spirit of Christianity; it was under the influence of Christianity de facto, while positive philosophy was subject to this influence de jure and ex principio.

Significance of Schelling's philosophy

Schelling did not leave a specific school that could be designated by his name. His system, which represented the integration of three relatively alien views

subjective idealism,
objective naturalism and
religious mysticism,

She could maintain her somewhat violent unity only in the horizon of his mind and in the peculiar form of his presentation.

The most important works

"Ueber die Möglichkeit einer Form der Philosophie überhaupt" (1794);
"Vom Ich als Princip der Philosophie" (1795);
"Philosophische Briefe über Dogmatismus und Criticismus" (1795);
"Abhandlungen zur Erläuterung des Idealismus der Wissenschaftslehre" (1796-97);
"Ideen zur Philosophie der Natur" (1797);
"Von der Weltseele" (1798);
"Erster Entwurf eines Systems der Naturphilosophie" (1799);
"Einleitung zum Entwurf" (1799);
"System des transcendentalen Idealismus" (1800);
"Allgemeine Deduction des dynamischen Processes" (1800);
"Ueber den wahren Begriff der Naturphilosophie" (1801);
"Darstellung meines Systems der Philosophie" (1801);
Bruno. Ein Gespräch" (1802);
"Fernere Darstellungen aus dem System der Philosophien" (1802);
"Philosophie der Kunst" (lectures delivered at Jena in 1802-1803 and at Würzburg in 1804-1805; published posthumously).

Important are:

"Zusätze" to the second edition of "Ideen" in 1803 and
"Abhandlung über das Verhältniss des Realen und Idealen in der Natur", added to 2nd ed. "Weltseele" (1806);
"Vorlesungen über die Methode des akademischen Studiums" (1803);
"Philosophie und Religion" (1804);
"Darlegung des wahren Verhältnisses Naturphilosophie zur verbesserten Fichteschen Lehre" (1806);
"Ueber das Verhältniss der bildenden Künste zur Natur" (a solemn speech delivered at the Munich Academy of Arts in 1807);
"Philosophische Untersuchungen über das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit" (1809);
"Denkmal der Schrift Jacobis von den göttlichen Dingen" (1812);
"Weltalter" (posthumously);
"Ueber die Gottheiten von Samothrake" (1815);
"Ueber den Zusammenhang der Natur mit der Geisterwelt" (posthumously);
"Die Philosophie der Mythologie und der Offenbarung" (Positive Philosophy - posthumous ed.).

// Wikipedia Wikipedia Russian Philosophy. Encyclopedia, Friedrich Schelling. The anthology `Schelling: pro et contra` is prepared for the 225th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Schelling (1775-1854). The anthology is a collection of texts by prominent figures of Russian…

SCHELLING, FRIEDRICH WILHELM JOSEF(Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph) (1775–1854), philosopher, representative of German classical philosophy.

Born January 27, 1775 in Leonberg near Stuttgart in the family of a Protestant priest. In 1785, Schelling was assigned to the Latin school in Nürtengen, and a year later he was transferred to the seminary in Bebenhausen. In 1790-1795 he studied at the Tubingen Theological Institute. There he met Hegel and Hölderlin. In 1792 he defended his master's thesis on the interpretation of the biblical myth of the Fall. In 1793 he met Fichte and for a long time became interested in his philosophical system.

After graduation, he worked as a home teacher in the aristocratic families of Leipzig, while studying philosophy, mathematics, and physics.

In 1798, on the recommendation of Goethe and Fichte, he was invited to the chair of philosophy in Jena University. After moving to Jena, he entered the circle of Jena romantics, in which he met the Schlegel brothers and Novalis. In 1802–1803 Schelling collaborated with Hegel on the Critical Philosophical Journal.

Friendship with August Schlegel's wife Caroline grew into love and, after a break with Schlegel, in 1803 Caroline became Schelling's wife. The couple moved to Würzburg. In 1812, three years after the unexpected death of Carolina, he marries Paulina Gotter and eventually becomes the head of a large family.

In 1803–1806 Schelling was professor of philosophy at the University of Würzburg. In 1806 he became a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich, where he worked for over thirty years, with a break in 1821–1826, which he spent at the University of Erlangen. In 1807-1823 Schelling was the general secretary of the Academy of Arts of Bavaria, in 1827 he became president of the Academy of Sciences of Bavaria.

In 1841 he was a professor at the University of Berlin. Among the listeners of his lectures are Soren Kierkegaard, Jacob Burckhardt, Friedrich Engels and Bakunin. However, the lectures were not as successful as Schelling had hoped, and in 1846 he ceased active lecturing. He later returned to Munich and busied himself with preparing manuscripts for publication.

During his lifetime, Schelling's area of theoretical interest changed from the study of nature to the philosophy of Revelation. At first, he was strongly influenced by I. Kant and G. Fichte, then by the romantics () and Goethe, later by the German theologians: Boehme and Baader. The central concept of Schelling's philosophy can be considered the idea of freedom, which he consistently searched throughout his life, first in nature, then in the creativity of the individual, and, finally, in the nature of divine creation.

In his early work Ideas for the philosophy of nature(1797) and (1800) Schelling constructs a kind of natural-philosophical picture of the integral development of the world. Based on the initial parallelism of the subjective (I, conscious) and the objective (nature, the unconscious), he considers how the unity and development of nature and spirit is achieved. He consistently reveals the stages of the development of nature in the direction of its awareness of itself as an expedient whole. Thus, the unconscious (nature) gives rise to consciousness (man) as a future form of cognition of the unconscious. The dialectical method discovered by Fichte for the analysis of the formation of self-consciousness, Schelling extends to the analysis of natural processes and the processes of cognition of natural phenomena. The emerging contradictions of the conscious and the unconscious are removed by introducing the ideas of a pre-established harmony of two activities: conscious activity volition and the unconscious - producing the world of nature. The basis of this harmony is the productivity of any activity. As the most striking example of this kind of productivity, Schelling considers aesthetic activity. Every work of art can be understood as the product of both the conscious and unconscious realm of the spirit, and the entire objective world of nature can be seen as the primordial, not yet conscious poetry of the spirit.

The raising of the question of the philosophy of nature, independent directly from the "I", and the development of the theory of the objective productive activity of consciousness make Schelling's philosophy quite popular at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. both among European naturalists and German poets.

Turning to the analysis of aesthetic creativity, Schelling shows how the contradictions of the theoretical and the moral practical are overcome in art. According to Schelling, the artist is a "Genius" (intelligentsia), acting like nature. It is in his work that contradictions are resolved that cannot be eliminated in any other way. To explain this process, Schelling introduces the concept of intellectual intuition, which turns out to be a form of self-contemplation of the Absolute, which is the identity of subject and object (identity is understood not as a coincidence of subject and object, but as a dialectical transition from the previous to the next, or collapsed to expanded). From that moment on, Schelling more and more moves to the positions of pantheism of the Neoplatonists and B. Spinoza, considering God and the universe as different moments of a becoming identity, in which the Universe is the unfolded potency of an absolute organism and an absolute work of art.

All this leads Schelling to the well-known teleologism (recognition of logical expediency for everything that exists), in which the solution of the problems of substantiating the idea of freedom and the existence of evil begins to play a decisive role in his philosophical system. This solution Schelling finds in irrationalism and theosophical constructions that are characteristic of the later period of his work.

Schelling had an impact on the development of Russian philosophy. Through the Moscow circle "Lyubomudrov", Slavophiles, P.Ya. Chaadaev, his philosophical ideas influenced the educated part of the Russian nobility; through natural philosophers and theologians - on philosophical education in higher educational institutions.

Schelling's major works are Philosophical Letters on Dogmatism and criticism (Philosophische Briefe über den Dogmatismus und Criticismus, 1795); About the world soul (Von der Weltseele, 1798), First draft of a system of natural philosophy(Erster Entwurf eines Systems der Naturphilosophie, 1799), All O general deduction of the dynamic process (Allgemeine Deduktion des dynamischen Prozess, 1800), The system of transcendental idealism (System des transzendentalen Idealismus, 1800); Exposition of my system of philosophy (Darstellung meines Systems der Philosophie, 1801), Bruno, or On the Divine and Natural Beginning of Things (Bruno or Über das göttliche und natürliche Princip der Dinge, 1802); Philosophy and religion (philosophy and religion, 1804).On the relation of the fine arts to nature (Uber das Verhältnis der bildenden Künste zu der Natur, 1807); Philosophical research on essence human freedom and related subjects (1809) (Philosophische Untersuchungen über das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit und die damit zusammenhängenden Gegenstände, 1809); Introduction to the philosophy of mythology(Einleitung in die Philosophie der Mythologie, 1825, published posthumously); On the history of new philosophy (Zur Geschichte der neueren Philosophie, 1827, published posthumously), etc. The complete works were published under the editorship of Schelling's son F. Schelling in 1856–1861.