Friedrich W. Schelling

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
Schelling by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1835
Born	(1775-01-27)27 January 1775 Leonberg, Württemberg, Holy Roman Empire
Died	20 August 1854(1854-08-20) (aged 79) Bad Ragaz, Switzerland
Education	Tübinger Stift, University of Tübingen (1790–1795: M.A., PhD) Leipzig University (1797; no degree)
Era	19th-century philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	German idealism Post-Kantian transcendental idealism Objective idealism (after 1800) Jena Romanticism Romanticism in science Naturphilosophie
Institutions	University of Jena University of Würzburg University of Erlangen University of Munich University of Berlin
Main interests	Naturphilosophie, natural science, aesthetics, metaphysics, epistemology, Christian philosophy
Notable ideas	System of Naturphilosophie, (philosophy of identity), (positive philosophy), art as "the eternal organ and document of philosophy" whose basic character is an "unconscious infinity," (system of chemistry), coining the term "absolute idealism"
Influences Plato, Böhme, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Jacobi, Herder, Goethe, Hölderlin, Fichte, Kielmeyer
Influenced Van Til, Gadamer, Solovyov, Hegel, Coleridge, Ast, Kierkegaard, Jung, Heidegger, Tillich, Peirce, Goethe, Fackenheim, Žižek, Secrétan, I. Bernays,Krause, Ravaisson, Cousin, Grant, Hâjdeu, Deleuze, Esenbeck,Carus,Solger
Signature

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (German: [ˈʃɛlɪŋ]; 27 January 1775 – 20 August 1854), later (after 1812) von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German idealism, situating him between Johann Gottlieb Fichte, his mentor in his early years, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, his former university roommate, early friend, and later rival. Interpreting Schelling's philosophy is regarded as difficult because of its apparently ever-changing nature.

Schelling's thought in the large has been neglected, especially in the English-speaking world, as has been his later work on mythology and revelation, much of which remains untranslated. An important factor was the ascendancy of Hegel, whose mature works portray Schelling as a mere footnote in the development of idealism. Schelling's Naturphilosophie also has been attacked by scientists for its analogizing tendency and lack of empirical orientation. However, some later philosophers such as Martin Heidegger and Slavoj Žižek have shown interest in re-examining Schelling's body of work.

Schelling was born in the town of Leonberg in the Duchy of Württemberg (now Baden-Württemberg), the son of Joseph Friedrich Schelling and his wife Gottliebin Marie. He attended the monastic school at Bebenhausen, near Tübingen, where his father was chaplain and an Orientalist professor. From 1783 to 1784 Schelling attended a Latin school in Nürtingen and knew Friedrich Hölderlin, who was five years his senior. On 18 October 1790, at the age of 15, he then was granted permission to enroll at the Tübinger Stift (seminary of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg), despite not having yet reached the normal enrollment age of 20. At the Stift, he shared a room with Hegel as well as Hölderlin, and the three became good friends.