"TIMAEUS"

by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

Die hier zum ersten Mal veroffentlichte Abhandlung gehort zu den bedeutendsten Stucken des Berliner Schelling-Nachlasses. Sie enthalt auf 57 Handschriftenseiten eine geschlossene Interpretation ausgewahlter Textstellen von Platons Timaios und einschlagiger Passagen des Philebos (Bipontiner Platonausgabe). Die Abhandlung eroffnet erstmals genaueren Einblick in die Genesis der schon fruher als bisher bekannt einsetzenden naturphilosophischen Interessen und Fragestellungen Schellings. In seinem Beitrag Genesis und Materie behandelt Hermann Krings die Bedeutung der Timaeus-Handschrift fur Schellings Naturphilosophie. This essay, published here for the first time, is one of the most important works from Schellings literary estate in Berlin. On 57 handwritten pages, it contains a cohesive interpretation of selected passages from Platos Timaeus and relevant passages from Philebus (Bipontine edition of Plato). For the first time, this essay provides more precise insight into the origins of Schellings interest in natural philosophy and questions pertaining to it, which began earlier than was believed up to now. In his contribution Genesis und Materie (Genesis and Matter), Hermann Krings deals with the significance of the Timaeus-transcript for Schellings natural philosophy.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1994

About the author

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, later von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German Idealism, situating him between Fichte, his mentor prior to 1800, and Hegel, his former university roommate and erstwhile friend. Interpreting Schelling's philosophy is often difficult because of its ever-changing nature. Some scholars characterize him as a protean thinker who, although brilliant, jumped from one subject to another and lacked the synthesizing power needed to arrive at a complete philosophical system. Others challenge the notion that Schelling's thought is marked by profound breaks, instead arguing that his philosophy always focused on a few common themes, especially human freedom, the absolute, and the relationship between spirit and nature.

Schelling's thought has often been neglected, especially in the English-speaking world. This stems not only from the ascendancy of Hegel, whose mature works portray Schelling as a mere footnote in the development of Idealism, but also from his Naturphilosophie, which positivist scientists have often ridiculed for its "silly" analogizing and lack of empirical orientation. In recent years, Schelling scholars have forcefully attacked both of these sources of neglect.