1

A CRITICAL ANALYSIS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF ART OF

FRIEDRICH WILHELM JOSEPH VON SCHELLING

John David C. Tamondong

I. Introduction

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling is one of the great German philosopher

of the late 18th and early 19th century. He was born on January 27, 1775 in Baden-

Wurtenberg. His parents were Joseph Friedrich Schelling and Gottliebin Maria Cless.

During his young age he attended the Latin School in Nurtingen. During the 1970 when

he joined the Tubingenstift, which is a Protestant Seminary located in Tubingen he met

Holderlin a great German poet and also Hegel one of the great philosophers. Schelling

was considered as a German idealist together with J.G. Fichte and G.W.F Hegel.

Schelling published the Über die Möglichkeit einer Form der Philosophie

Überhaupt (On the Possibility of an Absolute Form of Philosophy) that made an impact

in his philosophical career. At the age of 23, he also became a professor in the University

of Jena and there he met different philosophers and there he met Fichte and became

friends. In 1800, the Systems of Transcendental Idealism was published. During 1803, he

left the University of Jena where it is the center of German romanticism and went to

Wurzburg for him also to teach. When the fall of Wurzburg to Austria happen he flee to

Munich and stayed there until 1841. He died in 1854 at Bad Ragaz, Switzerland.

There are various philosophers who gave during his time that he met in Germany

most of it are the major philosophers of that vountry namely Höderlin, Schiller, Fichte,

and Hegel. During early years, Schelling worked together with Fichte to develop his own

philosophy.
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One of his contemporary was Hegel which is five years older than Schelling.

There is a well known theory that Schelling developed which is called 'Absolute idealism'

until before Hegel produced his work. “Schelling had personal problems and his early

fame faded, while Hegel’s reputation grew. He resented Hegel's success. Schelling's

career was in decline by 1809, though he continued to lecture through the 1840s, when

Kierkegaard heard him in Berlin.”1

“Schelling generally followed Schiller's in the formative and plastic arts and

August Schlegel's in the literary arts, but he defined himself as a systematic philosopher,

not a practicing critic.”2

Publishing his lecture in philosophy of art was not in the mind of Schelling . It

was his son who prepared and published it in 1859. It is only for him to give lecture and

not to put it in publication. “The introduction by the translator Douglas Stott and the

historical foreword by David Simpson are helpful. They have also added useful notes, an

index and bibliographies. But, as they warn the reader, the principal problem is that

Schelling was an idealist, and this metaphysical position is alien to the American (or

British) mind.”3

1
Michael Vater, "Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling," Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, Vol. 4
(1998): 220, accessed November 15, 2021, https://epublications.marquette.edu/phil_fac/472/.

2
Ibid.

3
Elmer H. Duncan, a review on “The Philosophy of Art by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and
Douglas W. Stott”, Leonardo , 1992, Vol. 25, No. 2 (1992):226, accessed November 17, 2021,
https://tncc.edu/sites/default/files/contentdocuments/Characteristic%20of%20British%20Slaving
%20Vessels.pdf
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II. Philosophy of Beauty / Art

In this present times, where various art were presented to us in different manners

and ways. These arts gives us some relaxation, it helps us to lessen our stresses in life, it

helps us refreshes our tiring day to day living and numerous aid in our life. Art also gives

us the depictions of what is happening in our society and other aspects of our life. During

this time, does art gives us more than what we see on it? Does it gives a deeper meaning

when we perceived a work of art? Is there an impact on the way we perceive such art in

our lives? It is essential that in discussing the Philosophy of Art of Schelling is to define

first what philosophy is for him and what is art and the philosophy of art itself.

As Schelling conceive that “Philosophy is absolutely and essentially one; it

cannot be subdivided.4 This is what he believes in establishing to comprehend his

philosophy. Discussing this philosophy in general will bring knowledge on how he deals

with it in his latter discussion of his philosophy. He peculiarly give emphasis that there is

only one philosophy which is also an absolute. “What everyone is calling different

philosophical sciences is either something totally oblique as regards philosophy, or is

only a series of representations of the one and undivided whole of philosophy in its

various potences or from the viewpoint of various ideal determinations.”5

In elaborating this Schelling discussed that:

Philosophy is the basis of everything, encompasses everything, and extends its

constructions to all potences and objects of knowledge. Only through it does one
have access to the highest. By means of the doctrine of art an even smaller circle
4
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, The Philosophy of Art, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1989), 14.

5
Ibid.
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is formed within philosophy itself, one in which we view more immediately the
eternal in a visible form, as it were. Hence, the doctrine of art, properly
understood, is in complete agreement with philosophy. 6

Schelling rejects the imitation theory of art in his Über das Verhältnis der

bildenden Künste zu der Natur (On the Relationship of the Fine Arts to Nature), Instead,

he believes art reveals a “higher truth” than what is actual.7 In this world where man lives

have the capacity to know the eternal or the higher truth since it can be perceived in the

different art we have especially the things that we actually sense in reality.

Much later, in order to unify his system, he placed an Absolute at the summit of

things, whose nature and whose spirit can be deduced in all the richness of their

determinations.8 Schelling is credited with originating Naturphilosophie— the doctrine

that all of nature is ultimately derived from one initial force or principle. 9
Scheling

believe that there is the one who unify the nature that man lives wherein he cal it as the

Absolute that unite all.

“Schelling’s philosophy views nature in process—the Absolute is seen as

composed of the opposites of nature (objectivity) and Universal Spirit (which can only be

6
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, The Philosophy of Art, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1989), 13.

7
Lee Archie and John G. Archie, “Readings in the History of Æsthetics An Open-Source Reader Ver.
0.11” (2006):192, accessed November 17, 2021,
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/5008453/readings-in-the-history-of-aesthetics-philosophy-
landeredu

8
F,-J. Thonnard, A Short History of Philosophy, (New York: Desclee Company, 1959), 709.
9

Lee Archie and John G. Archie, “Readings in the History of Æsthetics An Open-Source Reader Ver.
0.11” (2006):191, accessed November 17, 2021,
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/5008453/readings-in-the-history-of-aesthetics-philosophy-
landeredu
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known through artistic creation). His philosophy is sometimes labeled an “æsthetic

idealism,” since art is, for Schelling, the objective rendering of subjectivity.”10

“Art is itself an emanation of the absolute. The history of art will show us most

revealingly its immediate connections to the conditions of the universe and thereby to

that absolute identity in which art is preordained.”11 In his philosophy it is the that helps

us to understand what is universal. This art also has the capacity to see what is beyond all

the things that man perceives. To transcends not just what art literally means to us but to

objectively understand that there is more we can see not just as merely art but as a whole.

10
Lee Archie and John G. Archie, “Readings in the History of Æsthetics An Open-Source Reader
Ver. 0.11” (2006):192, accessed November 17, 2021,
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/5008453/readings-in-the-history-of-aesthetics-philosophy-
landeredu

11
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, The Philosophy of Art, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1989), 19.
Schelling - Tim Freeman. https://tfreeman.net/resources/Phil-330/13.-SCHELLING.pdf
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III. Critical Analysis

In today’s phenomenon, we can still see the value of nature

With the emergence of the Philosophy of Schelling regarding the philosophy of

art there is an impact in the minds of the people.

Strength- It is nice that his philosophy of art not just merely interpretation of ones

subjective feelings but Schelling believes that there is beyond that art which is the

absolute. It is good for people to see not just what an art conceives but knowing and

analyzing that art is is there contributing in the knowing God.

Weakness- This philosophy can lead to the subjective interpretation of the

different art that man can perceives. Without further knowledge on the things a person

can perceived everything even evil depictions as subjected to the Absolute.

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IV. Conclusion

In this paper, a critical analysis on philosophy of art of Schelling one can see the

importance of his concept on how one’s own view in nature is being valued.
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V. References

Primary Sources:

Schelling, F.W.J. The Philosophy of Art. Edited, translated, and introduce by Douglas W.
Stott and foreword by David Simpson. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1989.

Secondary Sources:

Books:

Thonnard F,-J. A Short History of Philosophy, (New York: Desclee Company, 1959).

Articles:

Duncan, E.H, a review on “The Philosophy of Art by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
and Douglas W. Stott”, Leonardo , 1992, Vol. 25, No. 2 (1992):225-226, accessed
November 17, 2021, https://tncc.edu/sites/default/files/content-
documents/Characteristic%20of%20British%20Slaving%20Vessels.pdf

Gaut, B. and Lopes, DM., “The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics, 2nd Edition:Idealism
(SchoSchopenhauer, Schiller and Schelling by Dale Jacquette”, Routledge, 2013, pt. 1,
No. 7, accesed December 31, 2021, https://epdf.pub/the-routledge-companion-to-
aesthetics-2nd-edition-routledge-philosophy-companion.html

Vater, Michael, "Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling," Encyclopedia of Aesthetics,

Vol. 4 (1998): 220-224, accessed November 15, 2021,
https://epublications.marquette.edu/phil_fac/472/.

Schelling, F. W. J. von | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

https://iep.utm.edu/schellin/
https://iep.utm.edu/schellin/

Plotinus, Enneads, on Readings in the History of Aesthetics, Lee Archie and John Archie, (GNU Free
Documentation License, 2006), Accessed on December 6, 2021,
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/5008453/readings-in-the-history-of-aesthetics-philosophy-
landeredu
46.