Reading circle (F.W.J. Schelling: Ages of the World)

Discussion on literature other than by the Star of Azazel.
Wyrmfang
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Re: Reading circle (F.W.J. Schelling: Ages of the World)

Post by Wyrmfang »

Krepusculum wrote: Tue Jun 02, 2020 3:41 pm This title will perfectly complement my current western philosophical and theological studies. For that reason it will be given precedence over the Frances Yates reading circle. The Wirth version is rather hard to find for a fair price so I have settled for the J. P. Lawrence translation which should arrive in about a week. It also seems to contain the first draft which got me interested as I am rather easily triggered by all things first pressing, first edition etc I guess strange collector habits never really die out. I will read along but cannot guarantee full participation as my schedule is rather crammed already. My readings will be done in the weekend.
Unfortunately the first draft is more a completely different work than a different version of the same work. Weltalter was project that occupied Schelling for two decades; the three "drafts" cannot be considered to be drafts of the same work, but Schelling´s ideas evolved constantly. However, the most essential ideas were the same already in the Freedom Essay, so I think you can nevertheless read the first draft simultaneously. Would it be ok, if I read the third draft in my own pace, and you comment whenever you want what is happening in the frist draft? Though it might be quite challenging, we might finally get an overview what are the main differences between the drafts.
Krepusculum
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Re: Reading circle (F.W.J. Schelling: Ages of the World)

Post by Krepusculum »

Wyrmfang wrote: Tue Jun 02, 2020 6:08 pm Would it be ok, if I read the third draft in my own pace, and you comment whenever you want what is happening in the frist draft? Though it might be quite challenging, we might finally get an overview what are the main differences between the drafts.
Fine with me.
Wyrmfang
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Location: Espoo

Re: Reading circle (F.W.J. Schelling: Ages of the World)

Post by Wyrmfang »

What is Necessary of God=The Nature of God

God consists in three powers which in a sense are only for themselves but yet cannot be without others: the negative (contraction to self), the positive (love), and their irreducible union. Because the powers exclude each other, they cannot be at the same time but form some kind of extra-temporal cycle which begins the No of the contracting power. The beginning cannot be a conscious decision but it must be a blind burst of will. At the same time it is something that does not properly exist but rather longs for existence. This kind of non-being has been problematic for modern Western philosophy, as it is generally conceived in terms of simple "nothing", which would of course not work: nothing can come from nothing. However, non-being conceived as excess of possibilities is the necessary beginning of any determinate being. Schelling takes up here the analogy of the tension of the bow, which well describes both the non-being and the contraction in the first power. Yet the cycle of the three principles is only that in God which is involuntary. Schelling conceives visible nature as the analogy of this cycle; a seed produces a tree and the tree again produces seeds. The freedom of God, and consequently the freedom of the human being requires a break in this cycle and a higher principle above it.
Wyrmfang
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Location: Espoo

Re: Reading circle (F.W.J. Schelling: Ages of the World)

Post by Wyrmfang »

2) FREEDOM IN THE BEING OF GOD

The Concept of the spirit without nature=the highest concept of the Godhead

But what can be above the cycle described in the last chapter? In Schelling´s words, it must be "outside and above all potency, a lack of potency in itself". This Godhead, which corresponds to the Unground of the FE must then be in a sense nothingness. It is nothingness in the sense that its nature is not determined in any way, but it is the possibility of anything or nothing at all. But at the same time it is "everything because only from it as eternal freedom comes all force and because it has all things under it, rules everything, and is ruled by nothing". Understanding Schelling here requires again that his talk is not taken in the formal sense but in the context of his metaphysics of the will; nothingness is a will that will nothing, is indifferent to all possibilities.

Why Schelling takes up this difficult idea can be understood theoretically by his "copular logic". The Godhead is the undefined x behind all identity statements a=b. It is the common space that grounds any opposition. As such, it is not, however, the highest unity of everything in the Neoplatonic sense but an original undecision behind even unity and difference. In the practical sense, an aspect of the Godhead is within the human will. The freedom of the will requires this undecided nothingness as the basis of the opposition between freedom in and necessity. This is Schelling´s way of making sense of the idea freedom given that both the ordinary conception of freedom and that of necessity as well must apply to human being at the same time.
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