Friedrich Schelling, Von der Weltseele, einer Hypothese der höheren Physik zur Erklärung des allgemeinen Organismus

Dale E. Snow (Loyola University Maryland)
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Von der Weltseele

[

On the World Soul

] was Schelling’s second major publication on the philosophy of nature, appearing one year after his first, the

Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature

of 1797. It begins with a deceptively simple-sounding observation. On the one hand, the world of nature as it is described by science appears to be nothing more than a highly complex mechanism; yet this is simply not true to our lived experience of nature, especially where living and organic phenomena are concerned. As indicated by the title, Schelling seeks the underlying unity of all natural phenomena:

As soon as our observation has elevated itself to the idea of nature as a whole, the contradiction between mechanism and organism disappears, which has held up the progress of natural science long enough

1449 words

Citation: Snow, Dale E.. "Von der Weltseele, einer Hypothese der höheren Physik zur Erklärung des allgemeinen Organismus". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 June 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34644, accessed 19 March 2024.]

34644 Von der Weltseele, einer Hypothese der höheren Physik zur Erklärung des allgemeinen Organismus 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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