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Schelling: An Introduction to the System of Freedom
Hardcover with dust jacket. Previous owner's name penned on ffep. Slight wear on upper edge of text. Dust jacket faded along spine. Otherwise VG
- GenresPhilosophy
201 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1983
28 people want to read
About the author
Alan White
8 books6 followersAlan White is Mark Hopkins Professor of Philosophy at Williams College.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 22, 2017
Having given a couple stabs at Schelling's Essay on Freedom, I found his strictly philosophical points to be of interest even though they were frankly worded in convoluted phrasing and terms, but I found his theological worries utterly irrelevant to philosophy as such, and because of this I felt, and still do, that the prominence of theology in his philosophy skews much of the problems and questions he deals with towards insoluble contradictions and leaps.
As an overview, this book is fantastic. It doesn't assume any acquaintance with the tradition of German Idealism, and has some valuable further background chapters for key ideas/thinkers who Schelling built on in order to keep things intelligible. For an overview of such a seemingly ranging oeuvre as Schelling's it strikes a good balance of focusing on key thoughts and works more than going into the details of everything Schelling wrote.
The general overview of Schelling's various systematic attempts from first to last was very good in that White makes a sympathetic exposition of Schelling. He puts forth what the central problems Schelling wanted to solve were, and why he thought they must be solved in the manners he tried. The subchapter on Fichte was very interesting and illuminates on topics I was ignorant of. The subchapter on Leibniz was also quite fascinating regarding the nature of the finite and infinite. That said, White does not shy from also exposing the errors and troubles of Schelling's attempts. The pointing out of these errors, however, are not made in external criticism, but simply to point out the problems encountered with Schelling's various attempts.
The chapter on the "Essay on Freedom" was quite good in elucidating and pointing out the difficulties the reader faces with an obscurity and esotericism Schelling wrote into the essay on purpose (for reasons I think are quite irrational). That said, the questions of theology and metaphysics dealt with, though interesting as they are, feel irrelevant to a philosophical understanding of metaphysics as such. His treatment of freedom also suffers from theological understandings of freedom and its main function in providing culpability for good and evil in the world to our subjectivity as source by choosing one or the other. While I think freedom must include notions of moral good and evil, I also think it's an absurdity to reduce freedom to the crux of this choice.
Overall, a great overview if one is interested in Schelling's historical place and role in German Idealism and its eventual demise as well as the demise of metaphysics and the project of classical philosophy as a whole.
As an overview, this book is fantastic. It doesn't assume any acquaintance with the tradition of German Idealism, and has some valuable further background chapters for key ideas/thinkers who Schelling built on in order to keep things intelligible. For an overview of such a seemingly ranging oeuvre as Schelling's it strikes a good balance of focusing on key thoughts and works more than going into the details of everything Schelling wrote.
The general overview of Schelling's various systematic attempts from first to last was very good in that White makes a sympathetic exposition of Schelling. He puts forth what the central problems Schelling wanted to solve were, and why he thought they must be solved in the manners he tried. The subchapter on Fichte was very interesting and illuminates on topics I was ignorant of. The subchapter on Leibniz was also quite fascinating regarding the nature of the finite and infinite. That said, White does not shy from also exposing the errors and troubles of Schelling's attempts. The pointing out of these errors, however, are not made in external criticism, but simply to point out the problems encountered with Schelling's various attempts.
The chapter on the "Essay on Freedom" was quite good in elucidating and pointing out the difficulties the reader faces with an obscurity and esotericism Schelling wrote into the essay on purpose (for reasons I think are quite irrational). That said, the questions of theology and metaphysics dealt with, though interesting as they are, feel irrelevant to a philosophical understanding of metaphysics as such. His treatment of freedom also suffers from theological understandings of freedom and its main function in providing culpability for good and evil in the world to our subjectivity as source by choosing one or the other. While I think freedom must include notions of moral good and evil, I also think it's an absurdity to reduce freedom to the crux of this choice.
Overall, a great overview if one is interested in Schelling's historical place and role in German Idealism and its eventual demise as well as the demise of metaphysics and the project of classical philosophy as a whole.
June 30, 2022
Structured and passionate work by Alan White. A clear and fair account of Schelling's main philosophical concerns.
The philosopher seeks not the absolute itself-not the absolute as absolute-but rather the fundament of experience, the absolute as ground.
To be free is to act according to individual essence: Inner necessity is itself freedom, the essence of man is essentially his own deed. Necessity and freedom stand together as one essence, which appears as the one or the other when viewed from different sides; is itself freedom, it is formally necessity.
The philosopher seeks not the absolute itself-not the absolute as absolute-but rather the fundament of experience, the absolute as ground.
To be free is to act according to individual essence: Inner necessity is itself freedom, the essence of man is essentially his own deed. Necessity and freedom stand together as one essence, which appears as the one or the other when viewed from different sides; is itself freedom, it is formally necessity.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews