u Ottawa L'Universite canadienne Canada's university ITTTT FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES 1^=1 FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTOCTORALES u Ottawa POSDOCTORAL STUDIES L'Universite eanadieime Canada's university Devin Zane Shaw "AUfEMDErATHESETAUTHORWTHESIS"" Ph.D. (Philosophy) GRADE/DEGREE Department of Philosophy FACULTE, ECOLE, DEPARTEMEW7 FACULTY, SCHOOL, DEPARTMENT Freedom and Nature in Schelling's Philosophy of Art TITRE DE LA THESE / TITLE OF THESIS Jeffrey Reid DIRECTEUR (DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE/ THESIS SUPERVISOR CO-DIRECTEUR (CO-DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS CO-SUPERVISOR Frederick Beiser (Syracuse University) Denis Dumas Douglas Moggach Sonia Sikka Gary W. Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Freedom and Nature in Schelling's Philosophy of Art Devin Zane Shaw Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the PhD degree in Philosophy Department of Philosophy Faculty of the Arts University of Ottawa © Devin Zane Shaw, Ottawa, Canada, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-61259-0 Our Tile Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-61259-0 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. •+• Canada Table of Contents Abstract iv Acknowledgements vi Abbreviations vii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Dogmatism, Criticism and Art 10 1.1. The Primacy of Freedom 10 1.2. The Pantheism Controversy 14 1.3. Fichte' s Science of Knowledge 21 1.4. The Practical Rivalry of Dogmatism and Criticism 32 1.5. The Sublime of Greek Tragedy and the Interests of Reason 48 Chapter 2: From Nature-philosophy to the "Mythology of Reason" 53 2.1. Nature-Philosophy and the Beginning of the Philosophy of Art 53 2.2. Fichte, Kant, and the Thing in Itself 58 2.3. Appropriating Spinoza and Leibniz 61 2.4. The History of Self-Consciousness 66 2.5. A Natural Doctrine of the Mind 70 2.6. Toward a Philosophy of Art 77 ii Chapter 3: Artistic Activity and the Subversion of Transcendental Idealism 87 3.1. The System of Subversion 87 3.2. The Limits of Theory and Practice 96 3.2.1. Theory 96 3.2.2. Practice 99 3.3. Teleology and Nature-philosophy 105 3.4. From the "Phenomenology of Genius" to the New Mythology 110 Chapter 4: Substance and History: Art and the System of Identity 124 4.1. The Light of 1801 124 4.2. The Turn to Absolute Reason 130 4.3. The Relationship between Art and the Absolute 139 4.4. The Gods of Art 146 4.5. Substance or History? 158 Chapter Five: From Art and Nature to Revelation and Freedom 160 5.1. The Moment in Munich 160 5.2. From the "Living Center" of Nature and Art... 167 5.3... .to Theological Anthropology 184 5.4. The Politics of Mythology and the Mythology of Politics 192 Conclusion 201 Bibliography 210 iii Abstract The goal of this thesis is to establish the centraiity of the philosophy of art in Schelling's thought from the System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), through the period known as his absolute idealism or identity-philosophy (1801-1806), to the address Uber das VerMltnis der bildenden Ktinste zu der Natur of 1807. One of the central problems of previous interpretations of Schelling's philosophy of art is the lack of clear and comprehensive criteria for establishing the similarities and differences among his various presentations. In order to establish a measure for evaluating the continuity of Schelling's philosophy of art, I focus on demonstrating the structural features that are consistent from 1800 to 1807: 1) What philosophy constructs in the ideal, art produces in the real. Thus artistic activity is the highest human vocation (Bestimmung) because practical philosophy can only approximate its object, which is the moral law. 2) While both the natural organism and the artwork embody the same identity of real and ideal, of necessity and freedom, the work of art overcomes these oppositions through the identity of conscious and unconscious production, whereas the organism's activity is unconscious. 3) Artistic production has a socio-political task: it aims to overcome the fragmentary condition of modernity through a new mythology and artistic renewal. iv All of these features are first outlined in the System of Transcendental Idealism and are maintained through 1807.1 argue that they can be understood in relation to Schelling's ideas of freedom and nature. The philosophy of art emerges as a solution to the problem of how to show that human activity can be objectified within the real world. For the philosophy of art, the objective result is the artwork. Thus for Schelling, artistic production exhibits an ethic of free activity that was 'more free than freedom,' as freedom was conceived, in Kant and Fichte, as conformity to the moral law. Though he also thinks freedom as an infinite approximation to a regulative ideal, Schelling adds that artistic activity actually produces its own law, as beauty, in the harmony of form and content of the work, which exhibits the identity of freedom and necessity, and the self and nature. Art presents the absolute in the finite world, and makes possible a new mythology that can unify humanity. I conclude by arguing that Schelling abandons the philosophy of art when he shifts his concern to the relationship between freedom, revelation, and theology. Schelling's orientation turns from a hopeful future of humanity, realized in a new mythology, to a focus on Christian revelation, the figure of Christ and the idea of human freedom as positive capacity for good or evil. In this account, Schelling reduces the role of art to the production of a work of nostalgia for a lost connection to nature. Art is reduced to this role because Schelling now conceives of freedom, and virtue, as the highest activity of human being; but this idea of freedom is of an ecstatic or existential nature. Schelling elevates human freedom to the pinnacle of the system when he finally surpasses its conception as an activity that approximates the moral law. In the Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom of 1809, and the Stuttgart Seminars given a year later, freedom is rethought as a positive, ecstatic act of inner law-giving, which is realized as virtue. v Acknowledgements The origins of this thesis can be traced at least as far back as my supervisor Jeffrey Reid's graduate seminar "The Self and Its World in Fichte, Schelling and Early German Romanticism," of Winter 2005, in which I first read Schelling's work. It would not have been the same project without his constant encouragement and constructive criticism. The comments and suggestions of my committee, comprised of Denis Dumas, Douglas Moggach, and Sonia Sikka, helped to push my research beyond the project phase, and Frederick C. Beiser's incisive criticism improved the final draft. I would also like to thank my family and friends, in academia and otherwise, who listened, nodded, and gave support through the process of my writing and researching. Mark Young, Mark Raymond Brown and Dean Wm. Lauer all had to listen to endless philosophical speculations as I worked through Schelling's philosophy of art, and near the end, Mark Raymond Brown read part of the first draft. Sascha Maicher helped out when Schelling's German appeared to be opaque. My family supported my university education even when they weren't sure when it would end. Finally, my wife Caroline had patience during the time I was knee-deep in the absolute. -D.Z.S., December 1,2009 vi Abbreviations The following is a list of frequently used abbreviations that appear in the main text and footnotes. All references to Schelling's work cite the page of the English translation, when available, followed by the volume and pagination from K.F.A Schelling's edition of his father's work, as reproduced in Schellings Werke. Nach der Original Ausgabe in neuer Anordnung.