Related Terms • Idealism

Name:
Friedrich Schelling
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

Dates:
Born: January 1, 1775 in Leonberg
Died: April 9, 1886 at Karlsruhe

Specialization:
Idealism
Philosophy of Science

Major Works:
Philosophical Letters on Dogmatism and Criticism (1795)
Ideas Concerning a Philosophy of Nature (1797)
On the World-Soul (1798)

Biography:
Friedrich Schelling was a German idealist who is responsible for the creation of Naturphilosophie, or "philosophy of nature." Schelling's purpose was to try and find some way to approach nature in a manner more holistically than was done either by contemporary philosophers or by the growing material science as exemplified by the work fo Isaac Newton. The basic principle behind Naturphilosophie is that of unity: all of nature and, therefore, all of reality is derived from some Urkraft, or "original force."

The differences we perceive between things like light, heat, and electricity are not "real" in the sense that those differences are accidents rather than because they are all fundamentally different "things." This principal became very influential with quite a few scientists at the time and was helpful in encouraging them to develop more fundamental natural laws which described more and more phenomena in nature.

Also Known As: none

Alternate Spellings: none

Common Misspellings: none

Related Resources:

Biographies of Philosophers
This index of biographical index of famous philosophers throughout history includes many others who have contributed to our understanding of human nature and life - including sociologists, psychologists, scientists, and more.

What is the Philosophy of Science?
The Philosophy of Science is concerned with, obviously enough, science - specifically, how science operates, what the goals of science should be, what relationship science should have with the rest of society, the differences between science and other activities, etc. Everything that happens in science has some relationship with the Philosophy of Science and is predicated upon some philosophical position, even though that may be rarely evident.

What is Philosophy?
What is philosophy? Is there any point in studying philosophy, or is it a useless subject? What are the different branches of philosophy - what's the difference between aestheitcs and ethics? What's the difference between metaphysics and epistemology?