Schelling's Organic Form of Philosophy

Life as the Schema of Freedom

Bruce Matthews

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781438434100, 9781438434117
• eBook ISBN: 9781438434124
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Phenomenology in Philosophy

Locates in Schelling a new understanding of our relation to nature in philosophy.

The life and ideas of F.W.J. Schelling are often overlooked in favor of the more familiar Kant, Fichte, or Hegel. What these three lack, however, is Schelling's evolving view of philosophy. Where others saw the possibility for a single, unflinching system of thought, Schelling was unafraid to question the foundations of his own ideas. In this book, Bruce Matthews argues that the organic view of philosophy is the fundamental idea behind Schelling's thought. Focusing in particular on Schelling's early writings, especially on Plato and Kant, Matthews explores Schelling's idea that any philosophical system must be perspectival and formed by each individual student of philosophy, providing a unique new understanding to an important and often overlooked figure in the history of philosophy.

Table of contents

• Schelling’s Organic Form of Philosophy
• Schelling’s Organic Form of Philosophy
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Notes on Sources and Abbreviations
• 1. Life as the Schema of Freedom: Schelling’s Organic Form of Philosophy
• 2. Beginnings: Theosophy and Nature Divine
• 3. The Question of Systematic Unity
• 4. The Timaeus Commentary
• 5. On the Possibility of a Form of All Philosophy: The Form Essay
• 6. Freedom and the Construction of Philosophy
• Appendix
• Notes
• Index