German Philosophy 1760-1860: The Legacy of Idealism by Terry Pinkard

Author:Terry Pinkard
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2009-05-15T07:16:00+00:00

REEVALUATING FREEDOM

Shortly after publishing the System of Transcendental Idealism, Schelling came more and more to see that the conclusion to that work implied that his original idea of a "two-track" system of philosophy Naturphilosophie and transcendental idealism united in an "intuition" of their unity was at odds with his own development of both of them. Thus, by 1804, in his lengthy (although unpublished) System of All of Philosophy and of Philosophy of Nature in Particular, he made no pretense of there being "two tracks"; instead there was only one system of Naturphilosophie which concluded in a theory of mind with art as it highest "power" (Potent).

During this period of intellectually rethinking things, Schelling's own life had its share of upheavals. Having established in Jena a journal to propagate his views - the Critical journal of Philosophy he managed in 18oi to draw his old friend from university days, Hegel, to co-edit it with him. (Hegel had been at loose ends since graduating and was at that time an unpublished, unknown figure in German intellectual life). During this period he also fell in love with Caroline Schlegel, at the time married to the great Romantic critic, translator, and poet, August Schlegel. Caroline herself was the daughter of a prominent Gottingen theologian, possessed of an imposing intellect, no small amount ofliterary talent, and a sense that not merely young men but young women also were now leading unprecedented lives. She was twelve years older than Schelling and had already led an adventurous life: after her first husband (to whom she had been married off when she was quite young) died, she joined the Mainz Jacobins (during the period Mainz was part of revolutionary France), had an open affair with a young French officer, became pregnant, was jailed when the Germans recaptured Mainz, and then more or less for protection married August Schlegel. Originally her daughter by her first marriage was engaged to Schelling, but after the daughter's death following a severe illness, she and Schelling began their affair leading to her divorce and their marriage. This caused quite a scandal in Jena, and, since Caroline's intellect and independence upset (to put it mildly) many of the men around her, a whispering campaign arose to the effect that Caroline had killed off her own daughter in order to have Schelling for herself. August Schlegel maintained an equanimity about the whole affair, agreeing that they should all handle the matter like rational adults; he concurred with Caroline's request for a divorce and even defended Schelling and Caroline against all the ugly rumors. Jena, however, had proven itself to be an uncomfortable place to be, and Schelling accepted an offer from the newly reorganized university in Wurzburg in 1803 (which had just come under Bavarian control) so that he and Caroline could escape the local vitriol.

While at Wurzburg, Schelling came under simultaneous and venomous attack from both the Catholics (the bishops threatened students who attended his lectures with excommunication) and from the rationalist Protestant theologians there; neither attack, however, did anything to stop his continuing rise to fame.

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