Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature

F. W. J. von Schelling (Author), Errol E. Harris (Translated by), Peter Heath (Translated by), Robert Stern (Introduction by)

9780521357333, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 September 1988

324 pages
23.7 x 15.7 x 2.8 cm, 0.579 kg

This is an English translation of Schelling's Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature (first published in 1797 and revised in 1803), one of the most significant works in the German tradition of philosophy of nature and early nineteenth-century philosophy of science. It stands in opposition to the Newtonian picture of matter as constituted by inert, impenetrable particles, and argues instead for matter as an equilibrium of active forces that engage in dynamic polar opposition to one another. In the revisions of 1803 Schelling incorporated this dialectical view into a neo-Platonic conception of an original unity divided upon itself. The text is of more than simply historical interest: its daring and original vision of nature, philosophy, and empirical science will prove absorbing reading for all philosophers concerned with post-Kantian German idealism, for scholars of German Romanticism, and for historians of science.

Introduction Robert Stern
Translators' note
Glossary
1. Of the combustion of bodies
2. Of light
3. Of the air and the kinds of air
4. Of electricity
5. Of the magnet
6. General considerations, as results of the foregoing
7. On attraction and repulsion in general, as principles of a system of nature
8. On the fictitious use of these two principles
9. Some remarks on the mechanical physics of M. Le Sage
10. First origin of the concept of matter, from the nature of perception and the human mind
11. Basic principles of dynamics
12. Of contingent determinations of matter - gradual transition into the domain of mere experience
13. Philosophy of chemistry in general
14. Application of these principles to particular topics of chemistry
15. Projected outline of the first principles of chemistry
Concluding note and transition to the following part
Appendix
Index of names
Index of subjects.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD]