Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling was born on 27 January 1775 in Leonberg near Stuttgart. His father was a pastor and Orientalist. A precocious talent, Schelling entered the Tübinger Stift at the age of fifteen, where he formed close friendships with Hegel and Hölderlin. Influenced by Kant and Fichte, he published his first philosophical works while still a teenager.

At the age of twenty-three Schelling was appointed professor at the University of Jena and associated with the Romantic circle (including the Schlegel brothers and Novalis). During this period he developed his Naturphilosophie, writing works such as Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature (1797) and On the World-Soul (1798). In the System of Transcendental Idealism (1800) he presented art as the organ of absolute philosophy. He then turned to the philosophy of identity, seeking to articulate the absolute unity of nature and spirit.

In 1809 he published the important Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom, in which he explored the problem of evil and freedom with great depth, influencing later thinkers including the existentialists. After the death of his wife Caroline he entered a period of seclusion while working on the unfinished project The Ages of the World (Weltalter). In his final years in Berlin (after Hegel’s death) he lectured on positive philosophy, the philosophy of mythology, and the philosophy of revelation. Schelling died on 20 August 1854 in Bad Ragaz, Switzerland. His thought, with its emphasis on the unity of nature and spirit, the significance of art, and the reality of freedom and evil, remains a living source for continental philosophy.