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Schelling von

Name: Frederick Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling

Achievements: Major Romantic figure who started nature-philosophy movement

Born: January 27, 1775; Leonberg, near Stuttgart, Wurttemberg, Germany

Died: August 20, 1854; Bad Ragaz, Switzerland (Aged 79)

Field & Discipline: Philosophy

Language: German

Father: Joseph Friedrich Schelling

Mother: Gottliebin Maria Cless

Siblings: Unknown

Spouse: Dorothea Caroline Schlegel (d. 1809); Pauline Gotter, married 1812

Children: by Gotter: Three sons; three daughters

Education: Bebenhausen Theological Seminary; University of Tubingen

Major Work:

“Philosophical Investigations concerning the Nature of Human Freedom” (1809)

Life & Times:

At Tubingen, Schelling became very friendly with the philosopher [a pal of] Hegel* and in 1791 he began to study the works of [studied work of] Kant*, the idealist system of  [studied work of] Fichte* and the philosophy of the 17th-century Dutch rationalist, [studied work of] Spinoza*.

In 1792, he was awarded his Master’s degree.   In 1795 he wrote “On the Possibility and Form of Philosophy in General” which he sent to Fichte, who was impressed with the work.   In the same year, he followed this with “On the Ego as Principle of Philosophy.”

Between 1795 to 1797, while working as a private tutor and studying physics, chemistry and medicine, Schelling published several works on philosophy which were read by Fichte and [work read by] Goethe*.  The following year, at their suggestion, he was made  extraordinary professor at the University of Jena, the academic and cultural centre of Germany. 

Before he took the job, Schelling spent several weeks in Dresden, where he met the important  members of the Romantic school, including [a pal of] August Schlegel* and [a pal of] Friedrich Schlegel*, the French writer [a pal of] de Stael* and the young [a pal of] Alexander von Humboldt*. 

In Jena, Schelling lectured on Kant's transcendental idealism and Fichte's theory of science and he read the works of [read works of] Herder* and [read works of] Leibniz* and he wrote his first independent philosophical work.  Titled  [invented] “Naturphilosophie”*, the work, which attempted to clarify human understanding of nature in terms of the underlying spiritual laws, instead of mechanical or physical rules, made his reputation in Romantic circles.

Schelling’s philosophical dogma, that "Nature is visible Spirit, Spirit is invisible Nature,” meant that both nature and spirit sprang from the Absolute and formed an indestructible unity.   The organic and visible world arose from a common spiritual principle, the world soul (“Welteele”), which, from itself and through a series of generations, successively produced matter, living nature, and consciousness.

The various parts of the living world differed through their degree of perfection, but obeyed the same laws, so the laws governing one of the realms could be discovered through the exploration of other realms and the use of analogy.

Schelling believed firmly in the basic unity of man and nature.  He felt that the universe, an organised whole, was made up of parts each of which was connected to all others and relied on a system of polarities, or pairs of antagonistic and complementary forces that might unite.

This belief triggered Schelling’s interest in the contemporary work of [studied work of] Galvani* and [studied work of] Volta* on electricity, [studied work of] Bichat* in physiology, and [studied work of] Mesmer’s* theory of animal magnetism.

In 1803, Karoline von Schlegel divorced her husband August and married Schelling, which caused a scandal resulting in Schelling moving to Wurzburg, where he began to lecture on the philosophy of identity.   For Schelling, the Absolute expressed itself directly as the unity of the subjective and the objective.  

Hegel disagreed, arguing that Schelling's definition of the Absolute as an indiscriminate unity made it comparable to “the night, in which all cows are black.”  He claimed that Schelling had never explained how man could ascend to the Absolute, but had generated the idea as though it were “shot out of a pistol.”

In 1806 Schelling moved to Munich, where he remained for the next 35 years in the service of the Bavarian state, becoming a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and general secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts. 

In 1841, Schelling moved on to the University of Berlin where he reached the peak of his creative activities.  His lectures in Berlin were extremely popular with students such as [taught] Engels*, and [taught] Kierkegaard*.  By now, he had divided philosophy into the negative, which developed the idea of God by means of reason alone,  and the positive, which showed the reality of this idea by reasoning a posteriori, from effect, the fact of the world to cause, God as its creator. 

His lectures slowly lost popularity with the students and, in 1846, he left the university and gave up lecturing altogether. He retired to Bad Ragaz, Switzerland, where he later died.

Extra Connections: Influenced psychophysicist [influenced] Fechner* and biologist [influenced] Oken*.

Work related to that of [work related to] Robert Brown*

Assessment: Schelling advocated a philosophy that emphasised intuition over reason and placed the highest value on the aesthetic and creative imagination. For Schelling, it was the creative imagination that holds the power to grasp reality.  In spite of major changes in his ideas, he remained a champion of Romanticism.

Oneliner: Friedrich von Schelling, Romantic philosopher

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