The Ontology of Evil: Schelling and Pareyson
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The Ontology of Evil: Schelling and Pareyson A thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Daniele Fulvi PhD Candidate in Philosophy Western Sydney University School of Humanities and Communication Arts 2020 Acknowledgements First of all, I acknowledge the Darug, Tharawal, Cabrogal and Wiradjuri peoples as the traditional owners of the land on which this thesis has been written. Sovereignty was never ceded, and this has always been and always will be Aboriginal land. I want to sincerely thank my principal supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Diego Bubbio, for his priceless guidance over the last few years. He had the initial idea for this research project in 2015 and without his encouragement and advice I would have never had the opportunity to continue and complete my education in Australia. I also have to thank my co-supervisor, Prof. Dennis Schmidt, for his very precious support and for his tremendous insights. My sincere thanks also go to Dr. Chris Fleming and Assoc. Prof. Matt McGuire for having been part of my Confirmation of Candidature Committee. I also want to thank Assoc. Prof. Jennifer Mensch, Assoc. Prof. Dimitris Vardoulakis, Dr. Paul Alberts-Dezeew, and in general all the philosophy staff at the School of Humanities and Communication Arts of Western Sydney University, for having always been extremely friendly and available to me all the time. Special thanks also go to Dr. Wayne Peake for his immense patience and inestimable support for all the paperwork and administrative procedures I have had to complete. His help really made my life easier. Moreover, I wish to thank Prof. Lore Hühn for having been my Gastgeber during my period as visiting PhD student at the Albert-Ludwigs Universität in Freiburg, Germany. I also want to thank all the friendly academic staff that helped me in Freiburg, and especially Dr. David Espinet and Dr. Tobias Keiling. Additionally, I would also like to thank Prof. Maurizio Pagano and Assoc. Prof. Luca Ghisleri for having been my academic hosts during my semester as visiting PhD student at the Università del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro” in Vercelli, Italy, together with Dr. Ombretta Finotello for her help with the paperwork. I also have to thank Dr. Ezio Gamba, secretary of the Centro Studi Filosofico-religiosi “L. Pareyson” in Turin, for his help and assistance during my consultation of the archives of the Pareyson Study Centre. I also have to mention Prof. Gianni Vattimo, Prof. Claudio Ciancio, Prof. Francesco Tomatis, Dr. Emilio Corriero and all the academic staff in Turin and Vercelli for their friendly help during my stay in Italy. Furthermore, I have to thank all the fellow PhD students, masters students, researchers, scholars and gracious people who have crossed my path during this journey. The complete list of them would be too long, but I am really grateful for every single person I have met and all the new friends I have made in Australia, Germany and Italy. My life changed for the better once they all became part of it. I also want to thank and give all of my love to my father Antonello, my mother Stefania, my brothers Alessio and Leonardo and my grandmothers Gianna and Maria for their love and support during these years. I owe them everything and they have always been in my heart and in my mind, no matter how many thousands of kilometres we have been apart. Statement of Authentication The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original except as acknowledged in the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this material, either in full or in part, for a degree at this or any other institution. (Signature) Declarations The writing of this thesis has been made possible also thanks to some external support that I received during my candidature in addition to the support provided by a Western Sydney University Postgraduate Research Award for International Students, which I received in 2016. Specifically, I am referring to support from the Centro Studi Filosofico-religiosi “L. Pareyson” of the Università degli Studi di Torino (Italy), whose archival materials constitute an important part of my research. Also, I have received the support of the Albert-Ludwigs Universität of Freiburg (Germany) and of the Università del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro” of Vercelli (Italy), having spent one semester in each of these universities as a visiting PhD student in 2018. Finally, I acknowledge the professional editorial assistance in the form of copyediting, but not proofreading, provided by Christopher Brennan, STB, AE (Accredited Editor, Institute of Professional Editors, Australia – IPEd), according to Standards D and E of the Australian Standards for Editing Practice, 2nd ed. (IPEd, 2013). Table of Contents List of abbreviations ..................................................................................................................... 7 Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ 10 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 11 Chapter 1 F. W. J. Schelling: Evil, Freedom and Experience ............................ 21 1.1 Ground and Existence: Evil as a positive force .................................................................... 22 1.1.1 The Historical Background of Schelling’s Philosophy ........................................................ 23 1.1.2 From a Moral to an Ontological Point of View: Schelling’s Conception of Evil................ 38 1.1.3 "Where There Is No Struggle, There Is No Life": The Struggle Between Good and Evil as the Fundamental Condition of the Possibility of (Absolute) eExperience ................................ 50 1.2 Freedom and Necessity: "The Capacity for Good and Evil» ............................................... 59 1.2.1 Freedom, Necessity and Temporality .................................................................................. 60 1.2.2 Freedom and Intuition ......................................................................................................... 72 1.2.3 Freedom and Causality ........................................................................................................ 83 1.3 Schelling’s Heritage: Some Afterthoughts ........................................................................... 92 1.3.1 Heidegger and Jaspers Interpreters of Schelling ................................................................ 93 1.3.2 An Alternative Reading of Schelling .................................................................................. 107 1.3.3 Towards a Theory of Absolute Experience ........................................................................ 116 Chapter 2 Luigi Pareyson's Approach to the Question of Evil: A Critique .... 128 2.1 Pareyson’s Existentialist Interpretation of Schelling ......................................................... 129 5 2.1.1 The Relevance and Originality of Pareyson’s Philosophy ................................................ 130 2.1.2 The Influence of Jaspers and Heidegger ........................................................................... 141 2.1.3 Pareyson’s Reading of Schelling ....................................................................................... 150 2.2 Evil, freedom and transcendence ........................................................................................ 163 2.2.1 "A Temerarious Discourse": Pareyson’s Conception of Evil ............................................ 163 2.2.2 Transcendence, Freedom and Necessity ............................................................................ 174 2.2.3 Transcendence and Myth ................................................................................................... 183 2.3 A Critique of Pareyson’s Ontology ...................................................................................... 192 2.3.1 An Alternative Reading of Late Schelling .......................................................................... 193 2.3.2 A Critique of Pareyson’s Reading of Schelling ................................................................. 205 2.3.3 A General Critique to Pareyson’s Existential Hermeneutics ............................................ 214 Chapter 3 Towards an Ontology of Immanence: Freedom as Resistance ....... 224 3.1 The immanence of Evil ........................................................................................................ 225 3.2 Absolute experience ............................................................................................................. 234 3.3 Freedom as Resistance......................................................................................................... 243 Bibliography ......................................................................................... 254 6 List of Abbreviations Schelling’s Works When citing from Schelling’s works, I will include two references: the first one from the English translation, and then from the original German Complete Works (Sämmtliche Werke). In doing so, I will use the following abbreviations: German Works SW for Sämmtliche Werke, 14 vols, ed. K. F. A. Schelling (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1860). English Translations AW for The Ages of the World, trans. and with an introduction by J. M. Wirth (Albany: SUNY Press, 2000). IPN for Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature as Introduction to the Study of This Science,