The Aesthetics of Schelling's Naturphilosophie (original) (raw)
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Matter as Ground for Aesthetic Activity in Schelling
Schelling's Naturphilosophie, which deals with the real side of the Idea being actualized, paves the way for a philosophy which would deal with the ideal side of the actualization of the Idea - hence the need to develop a philosophy of freedom, art and mythology. The reason for this is, Schelling argues, that humanity is the limit of nature, which is why philosophies like the philosophy of art, freedom and mythology would be the key to conceptualizing, and thereby understanding, how the absolute comes to consciousness of itself through nature as 'natura naturans'. This leap - from the real to the ideal side of creation-, even though is emergent, through which a whole new level of complexity is established on the evolutional line, has its foundation, nevertheless, in the 'lowest of creations.' Examined more closely, Schelling's concept of matter, which is not reduced to what is purely physical, becomes the building block for a unified, complex system by medium of which Consciousness in nature finally emerges in human beings. Therefrom, the role of human beings, as social agents who are, moreover, aesthetically sensible as to intentionally engage in aesthetic, artistic activity is to create imitating the dynamics of naturing of nature. The aesthetic activity is grounded in nothing other than matter, through which the Absolute returns back to unity by returning back to itself.
Article Schelling’s Aesthetic Turn in the
2015
Abstract: This paper inquires into what the philosopher F.W.J. Schelling saw was the fundamental relationship between art and philosophy. Widely regarded only as a transitional thinker between Fichte and Hegel in the development of transcendental idealism, Schelling in his System of Transcendental Idealism (1800) develops the rather novel insight that transcendental philosophy finds its full expression in the philosophy of art. Taking into account the nature and the limits of both “transcendental philosophy, ” which begins with the thought and consciousness of the I, and also of “natural philosophy ” or science, which begins with the sensible and the non-conscious world, Schelling saw that it would be the responsibility of art to synthesize and unite the two opposing branches of philosophy. After describing the “artistic genius ” and determining the nature of the work of art toward the last part of the System, Schelling boldly claims that in his creations the artist is able to resol...
Glaciating Nature: Schelling's Natural Aesthetics and Melancholic Ecology
A serious barrier to ecological thought and theory is the heavy aesthetic baggage which the idea of nature, and to a slightly lesser extent ecology, bears. On the one hand it is difficult to visualize disappearance or extinction as one must always defer to the trace of past events or the withering but not complete absence of threatened natural objects, creatures, and environments. In a related sense, it is difficult to represent nature as a set of processes, flows, and transfers of energy which is necessary in order to talk about nature systematically as is
Becoming-Dynamic: The Early Schelling and the Production of Nature
Environment, Space, and Place (University of Minnesota), 2022
Schelling's early philosophy and his groundbreaking dynamism sought to present what was beneath the surface of nature, in order to reveal the ideal interiority of nature's real power, which for Schelling, was teeming with intensities, and forces displaying the unique inner life of the natural world. This paper's thesis, is an attempt to revive Schelling's early philosophy and Naturphilosophie, in the hopes of reconfiguring the modern conceptual gaze that has turned the natural world into a lifeless, empty, system. With our current climate crisis on the horizon, a return to Schelling's philosophy is an urgent endeavor and a call to philosophical arms in order to recreate a new relationship between modern humanity and nature, which ultimately seeks to grasp the organic world as not only productive but also creative and alive.
2014
The origins of Schelling’s Naturphilosophie and its relation to his transcendental philosophy have for a long time intrigued historians of philosophy. For one, Schelling’s philosophy of nature seems wholly at odds with his earlier transcendental philosophy. Furthermore, the claims that Schelling makes in the Naturphilosophie are not only complex but also, from the perspective of transcendental philosophy, appear to be highly problematic. In attempting to understand the relation between Schelling’s philosophy of nature and his earlier writings, historians of philosophy have thus emphasized a break in his development. For this reason, Schelling’s writings before 1797 are considered to bear little or no relation to his writings on Naturphilosophie. The goal of this paper is to revise the common view of Schelling’s development, by showing that his first systematic works offer significant insights into the way in which he comes to understand the meaning and goal of his philosophy of nature. In particular, I show that Schelling’s appropriation and critique of Kant’s table of categories provides an essential step toward the development of his Naturphilosophie.
The Idea of Nature as a Structure: A Few Thoughts on Schelling's Naturphilosophie
Cosmos and History, 2022
In this essay I provide a reading of Schelling's idea of nature, exploring how it points to a common structure iterated in both the organic and inorganic world. I explore the meaning and constitution of this structure through its reorientation of the subject/object divide and its logic of symbiotic "involution." I then reflect on one of the popular images of this structure in Naturphilosophie, the whirlpool. I explore how the whirlpool expresses the dynamic at the core of Schelling's idea of nature and explore some of its potential shared ground with some more contemporary views.
Estetika. The European Journal of Aesthetics, 2024
The article reassesses Schelling's philosophy of art in the System of Transcendental Idealism, focusing on its practical philosophy and the concept of the artefact. Often unexplored, this perspective offers a new account of Schelling's early aesthetics, linking aesthetic experience to historical becoming. The discussion begins with an analysis of Schelling's theory of intentional action, followed by a reconstruction of his understanding of artefact. It argues that Schelling integrates both social and material dimensions into his concept of artefacts. The paper then examines Schelling's comparison between artefacts in general and works of art, asserting that aesthetic experience in the context of the System exemplifies 'hermeneutic obstinacy'. This characteristic, typical of works of art, correlates with the open nature of historical reality.
Integral Aesthetics – The Evolutionary Function of the Sublime
2018
This paper explores an evolutionary integral aesthetics arising at the end of a two hundred year arc beginning with Immanuel Kant's establishment of modern aesthetic theory, and culminating with Jean Gebser's integral mutation of consciousness described in The Ever Present Origin. I examine Kant's aesthetics of the sublime as an early opening into Gebser's integral mutation of consciousness, and describe how an encounter with the sublime can boost the mind into wider bandwidths of consciousness with the activation of an integral perception. Beginning with the concept of the sublime in art, I describe how supersensible perception might be evoked and developed through encounter with the sublime. I then examine how experiences of the sublime through encounters with natural phenomena and works of art have the ability to suspend rational and verbal modes of cognition, clearing the way for the rise of supersensible states and the opening into a wider awakening of integral ...