Schelling, Hegel, and the Philosophy of Nature (Routledge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Philosophy)

This book develops an original interpretation of the relationship between F.W.J. Schelling and G.W.F. Hegel. It argues that the difference between these philosophers should be understood in light of their shared commitment to the philosophy of nature and the idea that spirit, or humanity, emerges from the natural world. The author makes a case for the contemporary relevance of German idealist philosophy of nature by walking the reader through its major themes, motivations, and arguments. Along the way, Schelling and Hegel are shown to develop key insights about the structure of reality and the dependence of living things and human beings upon inorganic natural processes. In elucidating the details of Schelling’s and Hegel’s respective philosophies of nature, the book challenges some of our most basic assumptions about the scope of philosophical inquiry and the relationship between matter, life, and human existence. Schelling, Hegel, and the Philosophy of Nature will appeal to scholars and advanced students working on German idealism, as well as those interested in contemporary philosophies of nature and the topic of emergence. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Epigraph Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Scepticism Regarding the Philosophy of Nature The Principles of Idealism Nature-Philosophical Explanation Emergence The Difference Between Schelling and Hegel Final Introductory Remarks Notes Part 1 Schelling 1 Subjectivity in Nature Schelling’s Intellectual Development Speculative Physics After Transcendental Idealism I Transcendental Idealism II Philosophy of Nature III Absolute Idealism Nature as Impersonal Subject Reason in Nature Notes 2 Dynamics, Physics, Organics The Fundamental Forces of Nature Why There Is a Material World Magnetism, Electricity, and the Chemical Process Life: Between the Inorganic and Spiritual Sensibility, Irritability, and Formative Drive Kinds of Life Notes 3 The Generation of Spirit The Human Organism Spinozism and the Essay On Human Freedom Identity Reconsidered Indifference and Difference I ‘Essentialism’ II Being and Negation Freedom for Good and Evil Freedom, Necessity, Will Notes Part 2 Hegel 4 Nature as Self-External Reason The Young Hegel From Nature’s Powers to Its Logical Process An Ontology of Movement From Reason to Nature The Logic of the ‘Free Release’ Implications for the Philosophy of Nature Notes The Priority of Nature and the Place of Spirit in the System 5 Nature’s Logic Nature’s System of Stages Emergentism Contra Organicism Speculative Physics and Empirical Physics Notes 6 The Self-Formation of Matter Space Time Matter in Motion Falling Bodies Celestial Motion and the Mechanical Stirrings of Real Freedom Self-Formation as Qualitative Differentiation Emergent Immateriality: Light Notes 7 Life and the Liberation of Spirit Chemical Processes and ‘The Chemical Process’ The Earth: Ground of Life The Plant: The Emergence of Life as Such The Animal: Life Fully Realised Death and the Spirit as Phoenix The Inner Unity of Spirit Thought From Nature to Spirit: Continuity and Negation Notes Part 3 Conclusion 8 Logical Emergence and the History of Nature The Late Schelling’s Critique of Hegel Two Kinds of Becoming The Implications of Understanding Nature as Negative Nature’s Past Notes Bibliography Index