Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature

by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Errol E. Harris (Translator), Peter Heath (Translator)

Originally published in 1797, this is the first English translation of one of the most significant works in the German tradition of philosophy of nature and early nineteenth century philosophy of science.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Germany

322 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1797

About the author

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, later von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German Idealism, situating him between Fichte, his mentor prior to 1800, and Hegel, his former university roommate and erstwhile friend. Interpreting Schelling's philosophy is often difficult because of its ever-changing nature. Some scholars characterize him as a protean thinker who, although brilliant, jumped from one subject to another and lacked the synthesizing power needed to arrive at a complete philosophical system. Others challenge the notion that Schelling's thought is marked by profound breaks, instead arguing that his philosophy always focused on a few common themes, especially human freedom, the absolute, and the relationship between spirit and nature.

Schelling's thought has often been neglected, especially in the English-speaking world. This stems not only from the ascendancy of Hegel, whose mature works portray Schelling as a mere footnote in the development of Idealism, but also from his Naturphilosophie, which positivist scientists have often ridiculed for its "silly" analogizing and lack of empirical orientation. In recent years, Schelling scholars have forcefully attacked both of these sources of neglect.

Reviews

[Milo Galiano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jamás me podré recomponer de esto. No sé por qué nadie me había acercado antes a esta joya ni por qué no escucho más sobre ella. Tiene muchos peros, el lenguaje no es el más cercano y el trasfondo narrativo que lo acompaña no está por ninguna parte, pero es que lo que se propone es una cosa impresionante que tan solo el giro ontológico de la antropología es capaz de acercarse a esta magnitud. El realismo especulativo, de hecho, se aleja más del proyecto de Naturphilosophie que nadie, por mucho que algunes crean que lo que hacen es NR. Repito: esto es una joya y hoy no le veo cómo de inagotable puede ser. No creo que mucho, pero de momento da bastante de sí. Tan solo necesita buena compañía.

[Maya Joelle]

More readable than Kant. :)

[Steven H]

A GERMAN IDEALIST PHILOSOPHER WORKS UP TO THE IDEA OF "NATURE AS A WHOLE"

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775-1854) was a German "Idealist" philosopher. He wrote in the Preface to the first edition of this 1797 book, "now theoretical philosophy concerns itself only with the investigation into the reality of our knowledge AS SUCH; it belongs, however, to the APPLIED, under the name of a Philosophy of Nature, to derive from principles a DETERMINATE system of our knowledge...What physics is for THEORETICAL philosophy, HISTORY is for the PRACTICAL...

"Thus in working out the Philosophy of Nature and the Philosophy of Man, I hope to embrace the whole of APPLIED philosophy. From the former natural science, from the latter history, should receive a scientific foundation. The following essay is intended only to be the beginning of an execution of this plan... this work contains no scientific system, but only IDEAS for a philosophy of Nature. One may regard it as a series of individual discussions on this subject." (Pg. 3-4)

He states in the Introduction, "Philosophy is not something with which our mind, without its own agency, is originally and by nature imbued. It is throughout a work of freedom. It is for each only what he has himself made it; and therefore the idea of philosophy is also the result of philosophy itself; which, as an infinite science, is at the same time the science of itself." (Pg. 9)

He says, "If... we gather up Nature into a single Whole, mechanism... a regressive series of causes and effects, and purposiveness, that is, independence of mechanism, simultaneity of causes and effects, stand confronting each other. If we unite these two extremes, the idea arises in us of a purposiveness of the whole; Nature becomes a circle which returns into itself, a self-enclosed system...

Now this absolute purposiveness of the whole of Nature if an Idea, which we do not think arbitrarily, but necessarily. We feel ourselves forced to relate every individual to such a purposiveness of the whole; where we find something in Nature that seems purposeless or quite contrary to purpose, we believe the whole scheme of things to be torn apart, and do not rest until the apparent refractoriness to purpose is converted to purposiveness from another viewpoint." (Pg. 40-41)

He summarizes, "If we again compare the different potencies with one another, we perceive that the first is subordinated as a whole to the first dimension, and the second to the second, but that in the organism the true third dimension is first attained, whereas in reason, without potency, the static mirror of absolute identity, as in its counterpart, fathomless space, which is identity erupting in the relativity of the embodiment of the infinite into the finite, all dimensions become indifferenced and lie in one. This is the general articulation of the universe, which it is the true task of the Philosophy of Nature to demonstrate as the same for all potencies of Nature." (Pg. 138-139)

He explains, "Dead matter is only the first stage of reality, over which we gradually clamber up to the idea of a NATURE. This is the final goal of our inquiries, which we must now already have in view." (Pg. 172) Later, he says, "The absolute identity and truly internal likeness of all matter, under every possible difference of form, is the one true core and centre of all material phenomena, whence they emanate as from their common root, and into which they strive to return. The chemical motions of bodies are the breakthrough of the essence, the endeavour to return from external and particular life into the internal and universal, into identity." (Pg. 219)

He concludes, "The final goal of all consideration and science of Nature can only be knowledge of the absolute unity which embraces the whole, and which allows itself to be known in Nature only from its one side. Nature, as it were, is its instrument, whereby, in an eternal manner, it brings to execution and reality what it prefigured in the absolute understanding. In Nature, therefore, the whole absolute is knowable, although appearing Nature produces only successively, and in (for us) endless development, what in true Nature exists all at once and in an eternal fashion. The root and essence of Nature is that which combines the infinite possibility of all things with the reality of the particular, and hence is the eternal urge and primal ground of all creation.

"So if, of this most perfect of all organic beings, which is at once the possibility and actuality of all things, we have hitherto contemplated only the separate sides into which it resolves itself for appearance, namely light and matter, there now stands open to us, in the disclosures of organic Nature, that path into the true interior whereby we penetrate at last to the most perfect knowledge of the divine Nature, in REASON, as the indifference wherein all things lie in equal weight and measure as one, and this veil is which the act of eternal producing is clothed, itself appears dissolved in the essence of absolute ideality.

"It is the highest pleasure of the soul to have penetrated, through science, to contemplation of this most perfect, all-satisfying and all-comprehending harmony, the knowledge of which is as far superior to any other as the whole is more excellent than the part, the essence better than the individual, and the ground of knowledge more splendid than knowledge itself." (Pg. 272-273)

Schelling's deeply speculative and metaphysical philosophy is very far from the current philosophical "mainstream"; and unlike his fellow Idealist Hegel, he has relatively few "advocates" today. But his book may still interest those studying the development of German Idealism [Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel], or even those of a metaphysical (or even "New Age") bent.

[ernst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schelling schwingt sich hier zum objektiven Idealismus auf, entiwckelt vieles, auf dem Hegel später aufbauen und dessen Mängel er überwinden wird. Einerseits kommt Schelling hier über Fichte hinaus zur Welt, andererseits entkommt er noch immer nicht dem Kantischen Dualismus und dem Fichteschen Ahistorismus, schließlich existiert die Gesellschaft für ihn auch nicht als notwendig vermittelndes Element. Interessant ist der Kampf gegen den mechanischen Materialismus, den auch Fichte schon in seinem Versuch einer neuen Darstellung der Wissenschaftslehre ausgiebig geführt hat. Hier sind die Idealisten im Recht und bereichern dadurch die Dialektik um entscheidende Momente, wenngleich stark mystifiziert, und zwingen die Materialisten, sich weiterzuentwickeln.

Freilich größtenteils in den wissenschaftlichen Anschuungen überholt. Und die Analysen der Wissenschaften der Zeit, besonders der Chemie, nehmen einen großen Teil des Buches ein.

[Naitirofanboy · Rating 2 out of 5]

'Sobre el verdadero concepto de la filosofía de la naturaleza y la forma adecuada de resolver los problemas que plantea'

[Elena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Le doy dos estrellas porque desgraciadamente no puedo decir que lo haya entendido. Estoy perdidísima aquí

[sdv duras · Rating 4 out of 5]

early 19th century philosophy of science...