This Day in Philosophy — 20 August: the death of Schelling

20 August 1854 — Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling died at Bad Ragaz in Switzerland.

One of three#

With J. G. Fichte and G. W. F. Hegel, Schelling is counted among the three most influential thinkers of the German idealist tradition. His philosophy of nature, his philosophy of identity and the late search for a "positive philosophy" form three markedly different phases — which is why commentators speak of "the Schellings" rather than of one Schelling.

Berlin: Hegel's chair#

In 1841 he went to Berlin to take over the chair of philosophy left vacant by Hegel. His first lectures drew the notable figures of the age: the audience included Kierkegaard, Engels, Bakunin, Ranke, Burckhardt and Alexander von Humboldt.

But as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy records, Schelling was soon largely ignored by the leading thinkers of the day.

Why he is read again today#

His philosophy of nature keeps him current in debates about environmental philosophy and the new materialism; his 1809 essay on freedom and evil keeps him current along the line that runs to existentialism.

Schelling's fate is an interesting case in the history of philosophy: a thinker recognised very early (he was a professor in his twenties) and forgotten in his own lifetime.