Schelling and Modern European Philosophy: An Introduction

by Andrew Bowie

Andrew Bowie's book is the first introduction in English to present F. W. J. Schelling as a major European philosopher in his own right. Schelling and Modern European Philosophy, surveys the whole of Schelling's philosophical career, lucidly reconstructing his key arguments, particularly those against Hegel, and relating them to contemporary philosophical discussion.
For anyone interested in German romanticism and the development of Continental philosophy, this is an invaluable source book. The cogent and subtle argument of this book fills a major gap in our understanding of modern philosophy, in which Schelling emerges as a key transitional figure.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Ebooks

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 25, 1993

About the author

Andrew S. Bowie (born 1952) is Professor of Philosophy and German at Royal Holloway, University of London and Founding Director of the Humanities and Arts Research Centre (HARC).

He has worked to promote a better understanding of German philosophy in the Anglophone analytical tradition - including the works of Johann Georg Hamann, Johann Gottfried von Herder, Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg), Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Theodor W. Adorno, Jürgen Habermas, Albrecht Wellmer and Manfred Frank.

Frank and Habermas have spoken highly of his work in this area - with Habermas calling his work "masterly" and Frank calling him an "exceptional scholar", whose work represents "the most knowledgeable presentation in English of the history of the German contribution to so-called continental philosophy". The philosopher Charles Taylor has described his work on music as "excellent and densely argued".

He has translated the works of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Friedrich Schleiermacher. His recent work has focused on music and philosophy, and Adorno on the nature of philosophy. In addition to his philosophical work on music, he is a keen jazz saxophonist and has played with leading contemporary jazz musicians such as Al Casey and Humphrey Lyttelton.

He did his doctoral research on "History and the Novel" (1980) at the University of East Anglia, where he was taught by the renowned German writer and scholar W. G. Sebald (who later cited Bowie's work on Alexander Kluge in his Campo Santo). He studied German philosophy at the Free University of Berlin. He was Professor of Philosophy at Anglia Ruskin University until 1999. He was also Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Philosophy department of Tübingen University. He is on the Advisory Council for the Institute of Philosophy.

Reviews

[Anmol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic introduction to Schelling, both in explaining his philosophy in comprehensible terms, but in also comparing Schelling's thought to late 19th to early 20th century "post-metaphysical" thinkers like Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida (of whom I know next to nothing). However, since my main focus right now was to understand Schelling, I've left many of the comparisons as also the later Schelling's critique of Hegel as to-be read for later.

[Bogdan Stefan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A torturous experience. Not that much because it is a difficult book but because he keeps apologizing for having written it. Mr. Bowie tries to show that Schelling is still relevant, but to a very specific sphere of english analytic philosophy by taking away everything that is radical and beautiful about Schelling. Only to conclude that other, more recent thinkers have done a better job on every front. Grotesque.