(b Leonberg, 27 Jan 1775; d Ragaz, 20 Aug 1854). German philosopher. He was the characteristic philosopher of German Romanticism, and had an unmatched influence on creative artists among his contemporaries. The composer most notably influenced by him was Weber, who was also a friend, as were Goethe, Hölderlin, Novalis and other outstanding figures of the German Romantic movement. It was Schelling who coined the aphorism that architecture is frozen music.
Because he was precocious and long-lived, his philosophy developed through various distinguishable phases. The most influential was his ‘philosophy of nature’, which he was propounding at the turn of the century. In it he pictured the world as an endlessly evolving organism, to be understood only in terms of its aim, which is the achievement of self-awareness. Man’s emergence from nature is part of this process, so it is an error to think of spirit as being in direct opposition to nature; the two are basically one: nature is visible spirit, spirit invisible nature. Most importantly, the creative process is the same in both. The only difference between nature bringing forth an organism and a genius bringing forth a work of art (which is also to be seen as an organism, and to be understood teleologically) is that the latter acts consciously. However, this means that in great art spirit’s awareness of itself and of its identity with nature (and therefore the self-awareness of the world as such) is achieved and manifested, and thus the ultimate purpose of the world’s existence accomplished.
This philosophy was embraced by Romantic artists for two of its aspects: its identification of man with nature, the human spirit with natural forces; and its portrayal of art as the highest of all human activities.
Über das Verhältniss der bildenden Künste zu der Natur (Munich, 1807/R; Eng. trans., 1845)
ed. M. Schröter: Schellings Werke, nach der Originalausgabe in neuer Anordnung (Munich, 1927–59)
BRYAN MAGEE