Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

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Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, painting by Christian Friedrich Tieck, ca. 1800
Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, painting by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1835
Friedrich Schelling, Daguerreotype by Hermann Biow, Berlin, 1848

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (* 27 January 1775 in Leonberg, Duchy of Württemberg; † 20 August 1854 in Bad Ragaz in the Canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland) was a German philosopher and one of the main representatives of German Idealism. In 1812 he was raised to the peerage.

Schelling and Anthroposophy

Like Fichte and Hegel, the young Schelling is judged positively by Rudolf Steiner as an idealist. The mysticism of the late Schelling was judged more unfavourably by the young Steiner, but positively by the later Steiner.

„Schelling appears almost like Fichte, not with such force, but with such a way of thinking. We see very soon, however, that Schelling's spirit expands. Just as Fichte talks of I and non-I and of all sorts of similar abstract things, Schelling also talks in his youth and inspires people with it in Jena. But this leaves him at once, the mind expands, and we see ideas entering it, albeit imaginative ones, but again almost aiming at imaginations. It goes on for a while, then he delves into such spirits as Jakob Böhme, describes something that is quite different in tone and style from his earlier work: the basis of human freedom, a kind of reawakening of Jakob Böhme's ideas. We then see how Platonism almost revives in Schelling. He writes a Weltanschauungsgespräch (World View Conversation) "Bruno", which is really reminiscent of Plato's conversations, which is very forceful. Another interesting piece of writing is "Clara", in which the supersensible world plays a major role.

Then Schelling remains silent for a terribly long time. He was considered by his fellow philosophers, I would say, to be a living dead man, and then only published the extraordinarily significant work on the Samothracian Mysteries, - again an expansion of his mind. But for now he still lives in Munich, until the King of Prussia calls him to lecture at the Berlin University on the philosophy that Schelling says he has worked out in the silence of his solitude over the decades. And now Schelling appears in Berlin with the philosophy that is then contained in his later works as the "Philosophy of Mythology" and the "Philosophy of Revelation". He does not make a great impression on the Berlin audience, because the tenor of what he speaks in Berlin is actually this: With all thought, man achieves nothing at all in relation to world views; something must come into the human soul that lives through thought as a real spiritual world. Suddenly, instead of the old rationalistic philosophy, there appears in Schelling a reawakening of the old philosophy of the gods, of mythology, a reawakening of the old gods, and indeed in a way that is on the one hand quite modern; but from everything one sees: there is an old spirituality at work. It is quite strange [...]

And so one could have the following picture: Let us say, first of all, down in the physical world, Schelling, who went through his manifold fates in life, who, as I have said, had a long loneliness among these fates, who was treated in the most manifold ways by his fellow men, sometimes with enormous, magnificent enthusiasm, sometimes ridiculed, mocked, this Schelling, who actually always made a significant impression when he appeared in person again, he, the short, stocky man with the tremendously expressive head, the eyes still sparkling with fire at a late age, from which the fire of truth spoke, the fire of knowledge, this Schelling, one can see quite clearly the more one goes into him: he has moments when inspiration falls into him from above.“ (Lit.:GA 238, p. 97ff)

Schelling and Tycho de Brahe

According to Rudolf Steiner, Schelling was inspired by the spiritual individuality of Tycho de Brahe. The philosopher and theologian Jakob Frohschammer also received similar impulses:

„When I was really able to follow Schelling's biographical development, but not clearly - this only became clear much, much later, when I wrote my "Riddles of Philosophy" - I was able to perceive - as I said, not quite clearly - how much of Schelling's writings was actually only written down by him under inspiration, and that the inspirer was Julian Apostata-Herzeloyde-Tycho de Brahe, who did not appear again himself on the physical plane, but who had worked tremendously through Schelling's soul. And in the process I became aware that this Tycho de Brahe in particular had progressed in an eminently strong way after his Tycho de Brahe existence. Only a little could pass through Schelling's corporeality. But once you know that Tycho de Brahe's individuality hovers over Schelling as an inspiration, and then you read the brilliant flashes in the "Deities of Samothrace", the brilliant flashes especially at the end of the "Philosophy of Revelation", with Schelling's interpretation of the ancient mysteries, which is magnificent in its way, and especially if you delve into the language that Schelling uses there, into the language that is so strange, then you soon don't hear Schelling talking, but Tycho de Brahe. And then one becomes aware of how, among other spirits, this Tycho de Brahe, who was also an individuality in Julian Apostata, has contributed a great deal to the emergence of many things in the newer spiritual life, which have nevertheless had such a stimulating effect that at least the outer forms of expression for what is anthroposophical are sometimes taken from them.“ (Lit.:GA 238, p. 101f)


Works

  • Über die Möglichkeit einer Form der Philosophie überhaupt (1794),
  • Vom Ich als Princip der Philosophie oder über das Unbedingte im menschlichen Wissen (1795), (online; PDF; 440 kB)
  • Abhandlung zur Erläuterung des Idealismus der Wissenschaftslehre (1796),
  • Ideen zu einer Philosophie der Natur (1797),
  • Von der Weltseele (1798),
  • System des transcendentalen Idealismus (1800),
  • Über den wahren Begriff der Naturphilosophie und die richtige Art ihre Probleme aufzulösen (1801)
  • Philosophie der Kunst (Vorlesung) (1802/1803)
  • Vorlesungen über die Methode des akademischen Studiums (1803) (Digitised copy and full text)
Nachdruck: Hamburg: Meiner, 1974 (Phil.Bibl.275)
  • System der gesammten Philosophie und der Naturphilosophie insbesondere (Nachlass) (= „Wurzburger-“ oder „1804system“) (1804)
  • Philosophische Untersuchungen über das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit (1809),
  • Clara – Über den Zusammenhang der Natur mit der Geisterwelt. Ein Gespräch, Fragment (Aus dem handschriftlichen Nachlass, wohl zwischen 1809 und 1812)
  • Weltalter (1811: es gibt noch andere Versionen dieser Schrift),
  • Darstellung des philosophischen Empirismus (1830, nur aus dem Nachlass bekannt),
  • Philosophie der Mythologie (Vorlesung) (1842),
  • Philosophie der Offenbarung (Vorlesung) (1854).
  • Philosophie der Kunst (1859) (Digitised copy and full text)
New editions
  • Vorlesungen über die Methode (Lehrart) des akademischen Studiums. Hrsg.v. Walter E. Erhardt. Meiner, Hamburg 1990. ISBN 3-7873-0972-1
  • Das Tagebuch. Hrsg. v. Hans Jörg Sandkühler. Meiner, Hamburg 1990. ISBN 3-7873-0722-2
  • System des transzendentalen Idealismus. Hrsg. v. Horst D. Brandt u. Peter Müller. Meiner, Hamburg 2000. ISBN 3-7873-1465-2
  • Philosophische Untersuchungen über das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit und die damit zusammenhängenden Gegenstände. Hrsg. v. Thomas Buchheim. Meiner, Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-7873-1590-X
  • Zeitschrift für spekulative Physik. Hrsg. v. Manfred Durner, 2 Bde. Meiner, Hamburg 2002. ISBN 3-7873-1694-9
  • Bruno oder über das göttliche und natürliche Prinzip der Dinge. Ein Gespräch. Hrsg. v. Manfred Durner. Meiner, Hamburg 2005. ISBN 3-7873-1719-8
  • Philosophie der Offenbarung. Hrsg. v. Manfred Frank, Frankfurt/ Main: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft 181, 1977. ISBN 3-518-27781-2
  • Historisch kritische Ausgabe, 40 Bände (Reihe I: Werke, II: Nachlass, III: Briefe). Hrsg. im Auftrag der Schelling-Kommission der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften v. Thomas Buchheim, Jochem Hennigfeld, Wilhelm G. Jacobs, Jörg Jantzen u. Siegbert Peetz. Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1976 ff., ISBN 978-3-7728-0542-4
  • Die Weltalter, mit einem Essay von Slavoj Žižek, im Laika-Verlag als Slavoj Žižek / Friedrich Wilhelm J. von Schelling: Abgrund der Freiheit, ISBN 978-3-942281-57-7

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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