absolute

brain

constraints are such mastery

existence

language

mastery

nature

negativity

spirit

subjectivity

sublime

time

uncanny

unconscious

willing

work of art

nationality

German

occupation / innovator as

philosopher

university teacher

intellectual movement

German idealism

scientific organization

Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities

religion

Lutheranism

Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences

Hungarian Academy of Sciences

innovator in the field of

German Idealism

is the 'identity of all differences'-object and subject, nature and mind, the real order and the ideal.

According to Schelling, the Absolute is the 'identity of all differences'-object and subject, nature and mind, the real order and the ideal... and the knowledge of this identity is obtained by an intellectual intuition which, abstracting from every individual thinker and every possible object of thought, contemplates the absolute reason. Out of this original unity all things evolve in opposite directions: nature as the negative pole, mind or spirit as the positive pole of a vast magnet, the universe. Within this totality each thing, like the particle of a magnet, has its nature or form determined according as it manifests subjectivity or objectivity in greater degree. History is but the gradual self-revelation of the Absolute... when its final period will come to pass we know not... but when it does come, then God will be.

is the transcendent unity of all things, or the cancellation of all difference and distinctions. Hegel derisively refers to schelling's notion as 'the night in which all cows are black'.

For Schelling, the Absolute is the 'indifference point' beyond the distinction of subject and object, or any other distinction. In the famous Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit Hegel rejects this conception of the Absolute, referring to it derisevely as 'the night in which all cows are black' (miller, 9... PG 13). Hegel means that when the Absolute is conceived simply as the transcendent unity of all things (or as the cancellation of all difference) it really amounts to an idea devoid of all content. It is terribly easy to say 'in this world definite distinctions abide but in the Absolute all is one'... But what does tath mean'

is anything that shows what cannot be said, or acts as a path to an understanding of what cannot appear as an object of knowledge.

art is the route to an understanding of what cannot appear as an object of knowledge. . . . Art is, then, 'the only true and eternal organ and document of philosophy, which always and continuously documents what philosophy cannot represent externally' (ibid., p. 627). . . ..Art shows what cannot be said.. . .

is the only true and eternal organ and document of philosophy, which always and continuously documents what philosophy cannot represent externally.

Art is, then, 'the only true and eternal organ and document of philosophy, which always and continuously documents what philosophy cannot represent externally' (ibid., p. 627)

is the highest bloom of the whole organic metamorphosis of the earth.

The human brain is the highest bloom of the whole organic metamorphosis of the earth. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

is revealed therein, and great things are achieved by those who are self-confined.

To achieve great things we must be self-confined. . . mastery is revealed in limitation. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

is what steps forth from itself and manifests itself in stepping forth. It is contrasted with ground, which forms the base from which existenz (i.e. The existing entity) steps forth.

Schelling, who studied Leibniz (S, 102/84f.), revives the original meaning of Existenz'Ex-sistenz, what steps forth from itself and manifests itself in stepping forth' (S, 129/107). He contrasts it with GROUND, which forms the base from which Existenz (i.e. the existing entity) steps forth.

is a pure will that does not will for he wills nothing, for there is no lack or craving for actuality.

pure will. The first necessity and the highest essence of God is His freedom from Being: in purest freedom God is the eternal will that does not will, the will-that-wills-nothing, in which there is no lack or craving for actuality.

is a mythology deprived of its vitality, a bloodless mythology so to speak, which has only preserved in a formal and abstract form what mythology contains in living and concrete form.

One is almost tempted to say that the language itself is a mythology deprived of its vitality, a bloodless mythology so to speak, which has only preserved in a formal and abstract form what mythology contains in living and concrete form. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

is revealed in limitation and great things are achieved by those who are self-confined.

is 'petrified, or ossified' intelligence' . It is just intelligence turned into the rigidity of being... it's qualities are sensations extinguished to being. Bodies are its perceptions, as it were, killed.

Hegel often criticizes Schelling's philosophy of nature, especially for its use of imaginative analogies, but he fully endorses Schelling's claim that nature is 'petrified (or ''ossified') intelligence' (versteinerte Intelligenz) (Enc. I 24A.... Enc. II 247A.), and his own enterprise is similar to Schelling's in both its overall purpose and its execution. (inwood 1992 : 195) . . . Nature, like the realm of spirit, consist of stages or levels (Stufen), which Schelling calls 'powers' or 'potencies' (Potenzen), but these do not follow each other in time. The stages of nature are more or less parallel to those of spirit, and, he believes, 'nature is just intelligence turned into the rigidity of being... its qualities are sensations extinguished to being... bodies are its perceptions, as it were, killed' (IPN). Schelling's philosophy of nature had a considerable influence on, e.g., Oken, Steffens, Schopenhauer and Hegel.(inwood 1992 : 194-5)

is visible spirit... spirit is invisible nature.

Nature is visible Spirit... Spirit is invisible Nature. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

is invisible nature... nature is visible spirit.

is the unique point at which the dimension of ontological openness, obfuscated by the passage from 'quantum' proto-reality, explodes again in the midst of the fully constituted reality.

(jib) LITTLE SURPRISE THAT MODERNITY IS CONCERNED WITH SUBJECTIVITY BECAUSE POTENIALITY STANDS 'HIGHER' THAN REALITY Or, to put it in more speculative Schellingian terms, subjectivity is the unique point at which the dimension of ontological openness, obfuscated by the passage from 'quantum' proto-reality, explodes again in the midst of the fully constituted reality. Which is why, in contrast to constituted reality, in which actuality is more than potentiality, present more than future, in subjectivity, potentiality stands 'higher' than reality: subject is a paradoxical entity which exist only as ex-sisting, standing outside itself in an ontological openness. (Zizek 2006a .pdf)

is a repression of the dark and obscure power of the uncanny into the interior, into the institutionalized practice of the mysteries.

The sublime, in contrast, involves a repression of the dark and obscure power of the uncanny into the interior, or, as in Homer's days, into the institutionalized practice of the Mysteries.

is a repression of the threat of the uncanny redirected back into the interior, which frees up the subject to continue to be interested in that which is beyond the self and beyond the grasp of the self.

Thus, the direction of the repression is reversed. Repression no longer takes the form of a projection outward, as in the uncanny... rather, it is redirected back to the interior. What is the gain of this second repression' Apparently, the opposite of the preservation of a clearly defined self-image or strong ego boundaries is at stake. After the destabilizing threat caused by the uncanny has been repressed inward, the subject's orientation can still be directed outward. There continues to be interest in that which is beyond the self, and beyond the grasp of the self. Instead of safeguarding the self, then, there is in the sublime an inclination to lose the self in the extensions of the ungraspable and unattainable, and thus to engage with it.

 emerges only because the dark and obscure power of the uncanny principle that had dominated earlier religions had been reduced to the mysteries.

Greece had a Homer precisely because it had mysteries, that is because it succeeded in completely subduing that principle of the past, which was still dominant and outwardly manifest in Oriental systems, and in pushing it back into the interior, that is, into secrecy, into the Mystery (out of which it had, after all, originally emerged). That clear sky which hovers above the Homeric poems, that ether which arches over Homer's world, could not have spread itself over Greece until the dark and obscure power of that uncanny principle which dominated earlier religions had been reduced to the Mysteries (all things are called uncanny which should have remained secret, hidden, latent, but which have come to light)... the Homeric age could not contemplate fashioning its purely poetic mythology until the genuine religious principle had been secured in the interior, thereby granting the mind complete outward freedom.

is the subjugation of the uncanny... of mystery, myth, and the occult.

The Homeric songs, for Schelling the supreme examples of the sublime, are the result of such an initial repression, that is, the subjugation of mystery, myth, and the occult. Therein lies the meaning of Schelling's paradoxical statement that 'Homer is not the father of mythology, mythology is the father of Homer.' The following argument beautifully formulates Schelling's conviction that the Homeric sublime was founded on the repression of the uncanny:

is no longer merely a formal condition of intuition, but has rather become constitutive of the empirical self.

From this it is clear that for Schelling time is no longer merely a formal condition of intuition, but has rather become constitutive of the empirical self: 'Time is not something that flows independently of the self... the self itself is time conceived of in activity'.

is characterized by its groundlessness, its eternity, its independence of time, and its self-affirmation. There is no other being than it.

In the last and highest instance there is no other being but willing. Willing is primal being, and all the predicates of primal being only fit willing: groundlessness, eternity, being independent of time, self-affirmation' (SW I/7, p. 350).

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph SchellingThinkers

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling