La Construction de la matière dans la Naturphilosophie de F. W. J. Schelling (1797-1800)
This thesis presents the theories on the nature of matter developed by F. W. J. Schelling in his Naturphilosophie writings, notably the Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature (1797), the First Outline of a System of the Philosophy of Nature (1799), and the Universal Deduction of the Dynamic Process (1800). Schelling falls within the so-called “dynamist” tradition, according to which matter is ultimately composed not of simple bodies interacting by direct contact, but rather of forces which are themselves incorporeal, and whose dynamic relations give rise to corporeal properties such as extension, hardness, and sensible qualities. This tradition is popularized in Germany by Kant, and while Schelling initially subscribes to the Kantian conception of matter, the philosophical aims specific to Naturphilosophie quickly bring him to reject Kantian dynamism in favour of a novel system. I will thus present his position as it developed up to the Universal Deduction, where Schelling undertakes the ambitious project of a common genetic account of matter, the dimensions of space, and the “categories of physics” made up of magnetism, electricity and chemistry—a system that will remain influential in the first half of the nineteenth century, contributing among other things to the discovery of electromagnetism, and to the development of German crystallography and mathematics.
Philosophie F. W. J. Schelling Dimensions Philosophy Matter Space Naturalism Dynamism Magnetism Electricity Chemistry