Philosophical Inquiries into the Essence of Human Freedom
Encyclopedia
Philosophical Inquiries into the Essence of Human Freedom (original German title Philosophische Untersuchungen über das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit und die damit zusammenhängenden Gegenstände) is an 1809 work by Friedrich Schelling. It was the last book he finished in his lifetime, running to some 90 pages of a single long essay. It is commonly referred to as his "Freiheitsschrift" (freedom text) or "freedom essay".
It was described by Hans Urs von Balthasar
as "the most titanic work of German idealism". It is also seen as anticipating much of the collection of basic existentialist motifs. Its ambitions were high: to tackle the problem of radical evil
, and to innovate at a metaphysical level, in particular to correct dualism
. As its title suggests, it intends to give an account of human freedom, and the requirements on the philosophical side to protect this idea from particular formulations, at issue during the period, of determinism
.
, a position which (often simply called "dogmatism") had been a target for both philosophical and religious thinkers in Germany for decades. Schelling was not concerned to reject all that Baruch Spinoza
's thought implied, in the terms of that debate, but to salvage something from the unification of view (monism
) that came with it, while allowing room for freedom.
At this time Schelling was influenced also by Franz Xaver von Baader
and the writings of Jakob Böhme
. In fact Of Human Freedom contains explicit references to Baader's doctrine of evil
, and Böhme's schematic creation myths, and uses the term theosophy
; a detailed mapping of Böhme's thought onto Schelling's argument in the Freiheitsschrift has been carried out by Paola Mayer. On the other hand Robert Schneider and Ernst Benz have argued for the more direct influence of the pietist Johann Albrecht Bengel
and theosophist Friedrich Christoph Oetinger
.
. The second idea, requiring a rationale of emergence
, was more innovative, because of the place it gave to irrationalism and anthropomorphism
, within the "cosmic" setting (which need not be taken literally). The work stands also in relation to a decade of previous publications, formulations, and rivalries.
A view from the nineteenth century is that of Harald Høffding
(who sets the book in the context of a supposed personal crisis and philosophical block):
Modern readings of Schelling's intentions can differ quite widely from this interpretation (and each other). This writing of Schelling is also seen as the beginning of his critique of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
, and an announcement of a transitional moment in philosophy; part of the purpose was self-justification, verging on polemic in defence of Schelling's panentheism
. It is therefore a signpost marking a fork in the road for what is now called "classical German philosophy": even if it had its time of dominance, absolute idealism
in Hegel's sense is (after the "freedom essay") just one branch of the discussion of the Absolute
in German idealism
. Hegel became a system-builder while Schelling produced no systematic or finished philosophy in three decades after the Freiheitsschrift.
and the Manichean division into two disconnected and contending powers. Evil must be seen as active, in both God and natural creatures. There is a distinction: in God evil can never stray out of its place (at the base), while in man it certainly may exceed its role of basing self-hood.
Slavoj Žižek
writes that the central tenet is that
John W. Cooper writes
, levelled at him by Friedrich Schlegel in Über Sprache und Weisheit der Indier (1808). The German Pantheism controversy
of the 1780s continued to cast a long shadow. F. H. Jacobi, who had launched it, was someone with whom Schelling was in contact in Munich
, where the book was written.
In his book, Schelling takes up the issue of pantheism, concerned to refute the idea that it necessarily leads to fatalism
, so negating human freedom. Here he is closer to Spinoza, erasing the distinction between nature and God. On the other hand, Schelling is trying to overcome the distinction made in Spinoza's system, between natura naturans
(dynamic) and natura naturata
(passive). Schelling wanted to locate the fatalism in Spinoza, not in the pantheism or monism, but in his formulation.
Schelling considered that the idealist conception of freedom, in Immanuel Kant
and Johann Gottlieb Fichte
, had remained undeveloped, absent a cleaner break with the rationalist systems of Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz
, and a distinctive theory of its human element. In another view of the book's main theme, leading onto the further development of the philosophy of the Weltalter (Ages of the World), Schelling
In this approach, the Absolute takes on a darker side, and shows therefore the connection to the theme of the problem of evil. This aspect then pervades all life:
.
The divergence of Schelling and Hegel becomes clear from around this year, with Hegel's ambitions being systematic and explicitly encyclopedic, notions of freedom being quite different, and the use of dialectic becoming obviously distinct on the two sides. Hegel's star was in the ascendent, while Schelling's other road led into the wilderness, at least as far as academic respectability was concerned. Academic recognition for Schelling's work as important to philosophy, as opposed to an idiosyncratic contribution to philosophy of religion
, was indeed slow to come. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
, one of Schelling's contemporaries and followers, rated it highly.
When recognition did come in Martin Heidegger
's Vom Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit of 1936, Heidegger largely treated the Freiheitschrift as continuous with the "identity philosophy" period leading up to it. Heidegger by 1941 had hardened his line to the position that Schelling is still a theorist of an enclosing subjectivity
, while treating the Freiheitsschrift as the apex (Gipfel) of the metaphysics of German idealism. This view is still contested: other authors read the book as the start of something new in philosophy. Schelling's Stuttgart Vorlesungen of 1810 reformulate and build on the freedom essay, and the Weltalter manuscripts go further in trying to work out details of the Behmenist insights. The debate is therefore really whether the Freiheitschrift is culminating, seminal, or possibly both.
It was described by Hans Urs von Balthasar
Hans Urs von Balthasar
Hans Urs von Balthasar was a Swiss theologian and priest who was nominated to be a cardinal of the Catholic Church...
as "the most titanic work of German idealism". It is also seen as anticipating much of the collection of basic existentialist motifs. Its ambitions were high: to tackle the problem of radical evil
Radical evil
Radical evil A phrase coined by Kant in Religion within the Bounds of Reason Alone.There Kant writes:- Bibliography :Huang, Hshuan,...
, and to innovate at a metaphysical level, in particular to correct dualism
Dualism
Dualism denotes a state of two parts. The term 'dualism' was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general or common usages. Dualism can refer to moral dualism, Dualism (from...
. As its title suggests, it intends to give an account of human freedom, and the requirements on the philosophical side to protect this idea from particular formulations, at issue during the period, of determinism
Determinism
Determinism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...
.
Influences on Schelling
The literature on the history of philosophy contains many assertions about the general influences on Schelling. There are also more specific comments about other thinkers and traditions that had a definite effect on this transitional work. The opening pages make it clear that Schelling is engaged in arguing against SpinozismSpinozism
Spinozism is the monist philosophical system of Baruch Spinoza which defines "God" as a singular self-subsistent substance, and both matter and thought as attributes of such...
, a position which (often simply called "dogmatism") had been a target for both philosophical and religious thinkers in Germany for decades. Schelling was not concerned to reject all that Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch de Spinoza and later Benedict de Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish philosopher. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death...
's thought implied, in the terms of that debate, but to salvage something from the unification of view (monism
Monism
Monism is any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry. Accordingly, some philosophers may hold that the universe is one rather than dualistic or pluralistic...
) that came with it, while allowing room for freedom.
At this time Schelling was influenced also by Franz Xaver von Baader
Franz Xaver von Baader
Franz Xaver von Baader was a German Roman Catholic philosopher and theologian.-Life:He was born in Munich, the third son of F. P. Baader, court physician to the Prince-elector of Bavaria. His brothers were both distinguished — the elder, Clemens, as an author; the second, Joseph , as an...
and the writings of Jakob Böhme
Jakob Böhme
Jakob Böhme was a German Christian mystic and theologian. He is considered an original thinker within the Lutheran tradition...
. In fact Of Human Freedom contains explicit references to Baader's doctrine of evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
, and Böhme's schematic creation myths, and uses the term theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
; a detailed mapping of Böhme's thought onto Schelling's argument in the Freiheitsschrift has been carried out by Paola Mayer. On the other hand Robert Schneider and Ernst Benz have argued for the more direct influence of the pietist Johann Albrecht Bengel
Johann Albrecht Bengel
Johann Albrecht Bengel , Lutheran pietist clergyman and Greek-language scholar known for his edition of the Greek New Testament and his commentaries on it.-Life and career:Bengel was born at Winnenden in Württemberg, Germany....
and theosophist Friedrich Christoph Oetinger
Friedrich Christoph Oetinger
Friedrich Christoph Oetinger was a German theosopher.He was born at Göppingen. He studied philosophy and theology at Tübingen , and was impressed by the works of Jakob Böhme. On the completion of his university course, Oetinger spent some years travelling...
.
Themes
Explicit concerns of Schelling in the book are: the existence of evil and the emergence into reason. Schelling offers a solution to the first, an old theological chestnut, in brief that “evil makes arbitrary choice possible”. On the other hand, by no means all interpretations of the work come from the direction of theology and the problem of evilProblem of evil
In the philosophy of religion, the problem of evil is the question of how to explain evil if there exists a deity that is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient . Some philosophers have claimed that the existences of such a god and of evil are logically incompatible or unlikely...
. The second idea, requiring a rationale of emergence
Emergence
In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems....
, was more innovative, because of the place it gave to irrationalism and anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
, within the "cosmic" setting (which need not be taken literally). The work stands also in relation to a decade of previous publications, formulations, and rivalries.
A view from the nineteenth century is that of Harald Høffding
Harald Høffding
Harald Høffding was a Danish philosopher.-Life:Born and educated in Copenhagen, he became a schoolmaster, and ultimately in 1883 a professor at the University of Copenhagen...
(who sets the book in the context of a supposed personal crisis and philosophical block):
Modern readings of Schelling's intentions can differ quite widely from this interpretation (and each other). This writing of Schelling is also seen as the beginning of his critique of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of reality as a whole revolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism.Hegel developed a comprehensive...
, and an announcement of a transitional moment in philosophy; part of the purpose was self-justification, verging on polemic in defence of Schelling's panentheism
Panentheism
Panentheism is a belief system which posits that God exists, interpenetrates every part of nature and timelessly extends beyond it...
. It is therefore a signpost marking a fork in the road for what is now called "classical German philosophy": even if it had its time of dominance, absolute idealism
Absolute idealism
Absolute idealism is an ontologically monistic philosophy attributed to G. W. F. Hegel. It is Hegel's account of how being is ultimately comprehensible as an all-inclusive whole. Hegel asserted that in order for the thinking subject to be able to know its object at all, there must be in some...
in Hegel's sense is (after the "freedom essay") just one branch of the discussion of the Absolute
Absolute (philosophy)
The Absolute is the concept of an unconditional reality which transcends limited, conditional, everyday existence. It is sometimes used as an alternate term for "God" or "the Divine", especially, but by no means exclusively, by those who feel that the term "God" lends itself too easily to...
in German idealism
German idealism
German idealism was a philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s, and was closely linked both with romanticism and the revolutionary politics of the Enlightenment...
. Hegel became a system-builder while Schelling produced no systematic or finished philosophy in three decades after the Freiheitsschrift.
Evil as radical
The conception of evil is set against both the Neoplatonic privatio boniPrivatio boni
Privatio Boni is a Latin phrase which can be translated as "privation of good." It is a theological doctrine that evil, unlike good, is insubstantial, so that thinking of it as an entity is misleading. Instead, evil is rather the absence or lack of good....
and the Manichean division into two disconnected and contending powers. Evil must be seen as active, in both God and natural creatures. There is a distinction: in God evil can never stray out of its place (at the base), while in man it certainly may exceed its role of basing self-hood.
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher, critical theorist working in the traditions of Hegelianism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. He has made contributions to political theory, film theory, and theoretical psychoanalysis....
writes that the central tenet is that
John W. Cooper writes
Spinoza and pantheism
At the time of writing the Freiheitschrift, Schelling had on his mind an accusation of pantheismPantheism
Pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek meaning "all" and the Greek meaning "God". As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that "God" is best seen as a process of...
, levelled at him by Friedrich Schlegel in Über Sprache und Weisheit der Indier (1808). The German Pantheism controversy
Pantheism controversy
The pantheism controversy was an event in German cultural history which had an impact throughout Europe.A conversation between philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi and dramatist Gotthold Lessing in 1780 led Jacobi to a protracted study of Spinoza's works. Lessing had avowed that he knew no...
of the 1780s continued to cast a long shadow. F. H. Jacobi, who had launched it, was someone with whom Schelling was in contact in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, where the book was written.
In his book, Schelling takes up the issue of pantheism, concerned to refute the idea that it necessarily leads to fatalism
Fatalism
Fatalism is a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the subjugation of all events or actions to fate.Fatalism generally refers to several of the following ideas:...
, so negating human freedom. Here he is closer to Spinoza, erasing the distinction between nature and God. On the other hand, Schelling is trying to overcome the distinction made in Spinoza's system, between natura naturans
Natura naturans
Natura naturans is a Latin term coined during the Middle Ages, meaning "Nature naturing", or more loosely, "nature doing what nature does". The Latin, naturans, is the present participle of natura, indicated by the suffix "-ans" which is akin to the English suffix "-ing." naturata, is the past...
(dynamic) and natura naturata
Natura naturata
Natura naturata is a Latin term coined in the Middle Ages, mainly used by Baruch Spinoza meaning "Nature natured", or "Nature already created". The term adds the suffix for the Latin past participle to create "natured"...
(passive). Schelling wanted to locate the fatalism in Spinoza, not in the pantheism or monism, but in his formulation.
Synthesis claimed
According to Andrew Bowie:Schelling considered that the idealist conception of freedom, in Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
and Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, a movement that developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant...
, had remained undeveloped, absent a cleaner break with the rationalist systems of Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician. He wrote in different languages, primarily in Latin , French and German ....
, and a distinctive theory of its human element. In another view of the book's main theme, leading onto the further development of the philosophy of the Weltalter (Ages of the World), Schelling
In this approach, the Absolute takes on a darker side, and shows therefore the connection to the theme of the problem of evil. This aspect then pervades all life:
Summary
This is an approximate summary of the content of the Freiheitsschrift using page numbering as appears in Schelling's Works. There is no division except into paragraphs.- 336-8 There is a traditional view that system excludes individual freedom; but on the contrary it does have "a place in the universe". This is a problem to solve.
- 338-343 Reformulation as the issue of pantheism and fatalism.
- 343-8 Spinoza and Leibniz.
- 348 German idealism versus French atheistic mechanism; Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre.
- 349-352 It is a mistake to believe that idealism has simply displaced pantheism.
- 352-355 The real conception of freedom is the possibility of good and evil.
- 356-357 Critique of the abstract conception of God; Naturphilosophie.
- 357-358 Ground of God and light.
- 359-366 Critique of immanence.
- 366-373 Conception of evil according to Baader.
- 373-376 Evil is necessary for God's revelation; exegesis of "matter" in Plato.
- 376-7 The irrational element in organic beings; disjunction of light and darkness.
- 379 Golden Age.
- 382-3 Formal conception of freedom; Buridan's Ass.
- 383 Idealism defines freedom.
- 385 Man's being is his own deed.
- 387 Predestination.
- 389-394 General possibility of evil and inversion of selfhood's place.
- 394 God's freedom.
- 396 Leibniz on laws of nature.
- 399 God is not a system, but a life; finite life in man.
- 402 God brought forward order from chaos.
- 403 History is incomprehensible without a concept of a humanly suffering God.
- 406 Primal ground (Ungrund) is before all antitheses; groundlessness self-divides.
- 409 Evil is a parody.
- 412 Revelation and reason.
- 413 Paganism and Christianity.
- 413 Personality rests on a dark foundation, which is also the foundation of knowledge.
- 414 Dialectical philosophy.
- 415 Historical foundation of philosophy.
- 416 Nature as revelation, and its archetypes. Promise of further treatises.
A debated transition
Schelling placed the Freiheitsschrift at the end of the first volume of his Sämmtliche Werke (Collected Works). The correct periodisation of his philosophy is still a contentious area, and there are differing views of what kind of punctuation mark it really represents in Schelling's work. It is admittedly important that the book itself begins with an outright rejection of “system”. The publication of this book is said, on the one hand, to mark the beginning of Schelling's “middle period”. As such it marks the break with the “identity philosophy” on which he worked in the first decade of the nineteenth century, after his beginnings as a follower of Johann Fichte and developer of NaturphilosophieNaturphilosophie
Naturphilosophie is a term used in English-language philosophy to identify a current in the philosophical tradition of German idealism, as applied to the study of Nature in the earlier 19th century...
.
The divergence of Schelling and Hegel becomes clear from around this year, with Hegel's ambitions being systematic and explicitly encyclopedic, notions of freedom being quite different, and the use of dialectic becoming obviously distinct on the two sides. Hegel's star was in the ascendent, while Schelling's other road led into the wilderness, at least as far as academic respectability was concerned. Academic recognition for Schelling's work as important to philosophy, as opposed to an idiosyncratic contribution to philosophy of religion
Philosophy of religion
Philosophy of religion is a branch of philosophy concerned with questions regarding religion, including the nature and existence of God, the examination of religious experience, analysis of religious language and texts, and the relationship of religion and science...
, was indeed slow to come. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
, one of Schelling's contemporaries and followers, rated it highly.
When recognition did come in Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
's Vom Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit of 1936, Heidegger largely treated the Freiheitschrift as continuous with the "identity philosophy" period leading up to it. Heidegger by 1941 had hardened his line to the position that Schelling is still a theorist of an enclosing subjectivity
Subjectivity
Subjectivity refers to the subject and his or her perspective, feelings, beliefs, and desires. In philosophy, the term is usually contrasted with objectivity.-Qualia:...
, while treating the Freiheitsschrift as the apex (Gipfel) of the metaphysics of German idealism. This view is still contested: other authors read the book as the start of something new in philosophy. Schelling's Stuttgart Vorlesungen of 1810 reformulate and build on the freedom essay, and the Weltalter manuscripts go further in trying to work out details of the Behmenist insights. The debate is therefore really whether the Freiheitschrift is culminating, seminal, or possibly both.
English translations
- James Gutmann (1936), Of Human Freedom
- Jeff Love and Johannes Schmidt (2006), Philosophical Inquiries into the Essence of Human Freedom