Fichte (1762–1814) sought to interpret and perfect Kant’s philosophy. He condensed Kant’s transcendental idealism into one single principle, from which he could develop all theoretical and practical consequences. He called this project the Wissenschaftslehre (71).
His work assumes the “possibility of a principle that does not depend on any further presuppositions” (72). This principle is the product of the activity of consciousness, not a thing. It is the I-in-itself.
Fichte’s self posits itself, through the statement “I am I”. It thus posits everything else in contrast to itself. Here, negation is a productive act. “A whole world is created, so to speak, by increasingly relativizing primordial unity” (73). Fichte defended his system his whole life.
Fichte was interested in the social role of philosophy. He “conceived of the scholar as the representative of a true mankind” (74). He thought the I-in-itself and society are intimately linked: only among people can people really become themselves. He deduced society through his system in his theory of law and mortality, unlike Kant, who considered it simply “as a historical reality” (74). Hegel would later build on this work through his analysis of the master and the slave.
Schelling built upon Fichte’s work, and went further in establishing an absolute as the origin of the self and of things. His focus was on understanding nature through the essence of mind. This approach combines naturalistic research with the philosophical deductions that characterized the idealists. He introduced ideas of evolutionary history of cognitive development, which would later be built upon by Hegel in the Phenomenology of Spirit.
Schelling uses the unification of form and the formed in artistic experience to elucidate his meaning; and so, in his vision, art and philosophy mirror each other.
He also drew the impulse to go beyond undifferentiated unity from the same dividing process; his task was to harmonize the necessity of such a division with the freedom implicit in the unity. For this, he turned to theodicy, or the religious question of evil’s existence under a graceful God. Overall, Schelling sought to reframe matter “not as opposed to, but as affiliated with, the intellect” (166).
As Hegel’s fame increased later, an older, bitter Schelling turned to an “obscure or visionary tone” (165) and died in obscurity.
Ideas for a philosophy of nature
Spirit is the engine of world history through self-estrangement; by alienating itself. It presents a hindrance to itself, which it must overcome.
Spirit hasn’t charted out the course of history in advance; rather, it’s self-actualization is implicit in itself.
Spirit’s movement is (1) externalizing itself, (2) reflecting on itself, (3) overcoming that reflection, and moving on from that.
Oversimplified schema: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. T and A are incompatible; giving way to a tension. This collapses the system and gives way to the S (sublation) in a way that preserves and negates T and A. All history is present now, but as superseded moments.
Monarchy is in tension with itself, since it doesn’t allow for equality. Democracy too, since it gives too much power to caprice. These combine, collapse, and give way to constitutional monarchy.
Spirit has stages, starting with its immersion in nature, followed by self-consciousness, which is then sublated into universality, becoming fully free.
Decline of people is in habit.