"All births are born from darkness to light!" If philosophers have always been synonymous with the characteristics of pedantry, unfathomability and difficulty, then romantic poets often appear in the form of unbridled, open-minded, emotionally rich, and able to write brilliantly and write beautifully. But in the philosophical world, there is such a brilliant and changeable, unique thinker who loves literature and art, and he is the main figure of German classical philosophy - Schelling.
Schelling was a star in german philosophy, and as an important developer of classical German philosophy, he and Fichte were important thinkers connecting Kant and Hegel. But before and after his death, the light of his ideas was often obscured and ignored, and he was highly admired and often forgotten about the great contribution of such a pioneer. But just as Hegel's philosophy was actually a combination of Fichte and Schelling, Schelling's influence on later generations of philosophical circles was always quiet but profound. As Heidegger said of him: "Schelling should be the pinnacle of German idealism." Let's analyze and understand schelling's main philosophical ideas.
Emphasis on the objective world – the "natural" philosophy
Origins: We have spoken of Kant's "a priori philosophy" and Fichte's "philosophy of the self", so for this student of the philosophical tradition, Schelling's philosophical ideas can be summed up in a concise "natural philosophy". After Fichte abolished Kant's concept of the "self-body of things," he unified everything in the world within the "self," including the set self and the set non-self. Schelling, on the other hand, went further with Fichte, and in fact re-established awareness and respect for nature in a state of "non-self" and status.
Content: "Natural subjects" also have their own rationality and purpose. In this way, "nature" is in fact equated with "self". If we start from the perspective of the self alone, even if the self and the non-self come from the self, those real beings are limited to themselves, and the scope of knowledge is trapped within the self. Only by looking at the world from the natural point of view can we supplement a single transcendental theory, so that nature has its own purpose, a momentum for development, and universal principles. Nature can also become its own starting point and end point. Nature or the visible spirit can be boiled down to reason. It is this kind of thinking that allows objective existence to be found and valued in the "monistic world" and provides an important basis for Hegel's ontology.
Back to the subjective world – the philosophy of "self-awareness"
Origins: Schelling still follows the traditional path of transcendental idealism. Here, the content of transcendental idealism is accepted and developed by it. At the same time, the intellect of the self as considered by the transcendental idealist mind is likewise preserved by Schelling, while the objective things are called "nature," as the previous section says. It is only in the system of transcendental idealism that the activity of the mind is not only spiritual, but also practical. Only "I am" is the first, and the unity of the object and the subject, the unity of the objective and the subjective, the unity of the self and the non-self, the unity of the finite and the infinite, the unity of intentional and unintentional are all realized in the movement of the self, in the consciousness movement of the self. This is the main position of transcendental idealism, and in this position, what innovation does Schelling have?
Contents: "I think A=A" is not only ontologically the same as the absolute self, but also epistemologically the unity of analysis and synthesis. In simple terms, "A=A" is the expression that Fichte used earlier to argue for identity. We already know that this formula states that "self = self", but this is only in the ontological sense, that is, the self sets the self, the self sets the non-self; that is, the self and the non-self can be combined to become a whole. But this highest first principle also needs to be known and thought about, but Schelling believes that this is not a completely theoretical meaning that does not need to be proved, on the contrary, this proposition we need to re-examine this proposition when we think.
The question of this "self = self" proposition is why should we create an "A" to think about? It is meaningless if it does not involve the construction of knowledge in the spiritual world, and should be removed according to Occam's razor principle; if it involves specific concepts, objective reality needs to correspond to it, and if there is none, then the proposition does not hold. Therefore, this proposition requires a bottom-up "comprehensive proof"; there is a need for "analytical proof" from the inside out. Such proofs are a priori on the one hand and rational on the other; on the one hand, they are conditional and on the other hand they are unconditional. This requires us to have a basis for knowing the same basis, which is Schelling's - self-awareness. The ego can also be its own object, the non-self can be the object of consciousness, the subject and the object can become unified, so that the subjectivity of our proof lies within, and the objectivity lies in the ability of the self. This solves the problem. Moreover, the ego itself is infinite, but the world set is limited, so that it is the unity of "unconditional" and "conditional". Solves the contradiction between the limitations of this "I think A = A" proposition and freedom.
Review of Understanding the World: The Development of the History of Ideas
Finally, Schelling also developed the theory of the historical process of the "history of ideas" in thought, the first to look at the different stages of the history of the development of ideas. And found that the history of the development of the whole idea is actually the history of the movement of individual thinking. Here are the three stages of the development of ideas.
1. The original feels creatively intuitive. Based on the ontology and epistemology constructed above. At the beginning of the mind, it is "feeling," and this feeling is only the perceiver's awareness that he is limited. The period of creative intuition can realize that the object is also a product of the self, that is, it is not created by the self.
2. From creative intuition to reflection. By this time, it is not only possible to carry out unified awareness of the self and the object of cognition, but also to break through the activity of creation, to intuitiveize the self and the object together, and to focus mainly on the sensibility and decisiveness of the self, so that the self is one and organic.
3. From reflection to absolute will. The final stage is the stage of reaching absolute will, which begins to allow intuitive abilities to jump out of primary cognitive activities, not to stick to the inevitable intuition of the self, but to extract the intuition itself and let the concept exist alone, enter the level of practice, and let consciousness play a role.
"There are only two paths to otherworldly reality: poetry and philosophy. The former exposes us to the ideal world, while the latter renders the real world completely disappearing before us. With regard to art, Schelling believes that this, together with the general theory of philosophical instruments, is the vaulting stone of the whole philosophy. This long-neglected thinker will surely come out of the fog and bring hot and romantic thoughts to more people.