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Monday, October 8, 2018
Photo source: Wikimedia Commons, Joseph Karl Stieler
Friedrich Schelling (1775-1854) was a German philosopher best known for his contributions to transcendental idealism. Wikipedia says,
"In 1955 Karl Jaspers published Schelling, representing [Friedrich Schelling] as a forerunner of the existentialists... [Walter Schulz] presented Schelling as the person who resolved the philosophical problems with Hegel had left incomplete, in contrast to the contemporary idea that Schelling had been surpassed by Hegel much earlier." (Wikipedia: Friedrich Schelling, 8.16.21 UTC 05:32)
The rest of this post is some quotes from Schelling.
"If there is to be any philosophy at all, this contradiction must be resolved - and the solution of this problem, or answer to the question: how can we think both of presentations as conforming to objects, and objects as conforming to presentations? Is, not the first, but the highest task of transcendental philosophy? (System of Transcendental Philosophy, 1800)
"It is easy to see that this problem can be solved neither in theoretical nor in practical philosophy, but only in a higher discipline, which is the link that combines [presentations and objects], and neither theoretical nor practical, but both at once." (System of Transcendental Philosophy, 1800)
"How both the objective world accommodates to presentations in us, and presentations in us to the objective world, is unintelligible unless between the two worlds, the ideal and the real, there exists a pre-determined harmony. But this latter is itself unthinkable unless the activity, whereby the objective world, is produced, is at bottom identical with that which expresses itself in volition, and vice versa." (System of Transcendental Philosophy, 1800)
"God, however, as identity of the highest order, remains above all reality and eternally has merely an indirect relationship." (Philosophy and Religion, 1804)
"There was a time when religion was kept secret from popular belief within the mystery cults like a holy fire, sharing a common sanctuary with philosophy... At that time philosophers still had the courage and the right to discuss the singly great themes, the only ones worth of philosophizing and rising above common knowledge." (Philosophy and Religion, 1804)
"Just as a sculptor does not cease to be a work of art even if it lies at the bottom of the sea, so indeed every work of philosophy endures, even if uncomprehended in its own time." (Philosophy and Religion, 1804)