“To Break with Enlightenment”: On Irrationality and Unconsciousness in F. W. J. Schelling’s Philosophy of Freedom
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Lin, Li-Chih
Abstract
This study of F. W. J. Schelling’s Philosophical Investigation into the Essence of Human Freedom is an attempt on reconstructing Schelling’s thought on human freedom as a system. The pursuit of a “system of reason” for the world remains a shared interest for both the thinkers of Enlightenment as well as their inheritors. Problematically, famous for his changeableness, Schelling is viewed as a philosopher who is unable to construct a consistent system. I argue that Schelling’s thought on human freedom is a reversed version of the Enlightenment of which the emphasis is on the role of irrationality and the unconsciousness. I construe the structure of Philosophical Investigation into the Essence of Human Freedom as a journey or an odyssey that begins from the irrationality to the unconsciousness and eventually turns back to the irrationality with an advanced understanding. In Chapter One, I will focus on the irrational aspect in the Freedom essay and stress on his conception on the intellectual intuition and anxiety. I maintain that there is a tight connection between the System and the Freedom essay—that are human beings capability of creation and the sense of anxiety. The transference from irrationality to unconsciousness remains the main concern of the Chapter Two. The entwinement between irrationality, individuality and evil are focuses of this chapter. In the final chapter of the thesis, the focus will be the conception of yearning and love which I concern as the onset of Schelling’s theoretical construction of the world. Yearning and love bespeak a transition from the unconsciousness back to irrationality. Thus, the system of freedom is completed while such a transition is accomplished.
Subjects
F. W. J. Schelling
Enlightenment
Freedom
Irrationality
Unconsciousness
Love
Yearning
Type
thesis
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