Existential cosmology : the foundation of post-critical metaphysics in Schelling

Haddadi, Vijak (2013) Existential cosmology : the foundation of post-critical metaphysics in Schelling. (PhD thesis), Kingston University, .

Abstract

This thesis consists of a study of Schelling's post-critical metaphysics. For the purpose of systematic and historical corroboration, the foundation of Schelling's metaphysics is contextually reconstructed through investigations of Kant's critique of metaphysics and Hegel's transformation of the Kantian problematic. The Romantic and Fichtean background of Schelling's theoretical intervention is also partially reconstructed. On the basis of this contextual presentation, given in the form of a problematic progression, the thesis then develops Schelling's foundational move for the grounding of a post-critical metaphysics as an immanent response to Kant and Hegel. Schelling's position is here proved to consist of a radicalisation of Kant and a superior critique of Hegel's critique of Kant. The second part of the thesis then proceeds to present the elementary components of Schelling's metaphysics: the doctrine of powers, the philosophy of time and theory of ideas, developed directly out of the foundational grounding excavated in the first part. It is proved that Schelling's reconstruction of metaphysics is essentially powered by the reactivation of figures of thought derived from Platonic ontology and cosmology, rearticulated through productive conjunction with resource offered by the Kantian presentation of the transcendental apparatus. It is argued that the resultant metaphysical outlook, a solid restatement of which is given in the final part of the thesis, informs and grounds all of Schelling's philosophical endeavours, from the early philosophy of nature, over the philosophy of art, up to the late philosophy of mythology and philosophy of revelation. Thus this thesis offers an endorsement of the argument for the essential integrity of Schelling's thought - advanced by a number of recent scholars - against the conceptions of discontinuous breaks in Schelling's oeuvre, still prevalent in most of the orthodox views of the history of philosophy. Lastly it is argued that the reconstruction of Schelling's metaphysics, presented in this thesis, must be understood as a powerful vantage point from which to think the possibilities of a contemporary philosophical cosmology.

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