Saturn Devouring His Son – Francisco Goya
2,767 words
Saturn Devouring His Son – Francisco Goya
Part 12 of 15 (Read all parts here)
Will and the Metaphysics of Presence
By 1941, when Heidegger lectured on the Freiheitsschrift again, he had attained considerably more critical distance from Schelling. Heidegger had come to decisively reject the “anthropocentrism” that had characterized his earlier thought, with its emphasis on “subjectivity,” and thus had ceased to fetishize “the will.” (more…)
A daguerreotype of F. W. J. Schelling from 1848, the first known photograph of a philosopher.
A daguerreotype of F. W. J. Schelling from 1848, the first known photograph of a philosopher.
4,839 words
Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)
1. Introduction: A Philosophical Rebel
This essay is a continuation of my series on “Heidegger’s History of Metaphysics.” With Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775-1854) we have reached a significant milestone, in a number of ways. Behind us, in our journey toward Gelassenheit, we have Plato, the philosophers of the Middle Ages, Descartes, Leibniz, Kant, and Fichte. Ahead of Schelling we have only two more philosophers to discuss, Hegel and Nietzsche, before we turn to cover in more detail Heidegger’s response to the metaphysical tradition and to modernity. (more…)
6,341 words
Part 3 of 3 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here)
1. Fichte on the Nature of the State
We began to explore Fichte’s political philosophy in the last installment, as expounded primarily in his 1796 work Foundations of Natural Right. It is a basic principle of Fichte’s philosophy that subjectivity, what he calls the “I,” must bring nature under the control of reason. (more…)
7,156 words
1. Introduction
The thesis of this essay is that it is wise to be superstitious. To put it differently, I will argue that my readers should be superstitious — or that they should embrace the superstitious nature they already have (for most of us have it), rather than try to disown superstition. (more…)
6,383 words
1. Introduction: Remind me, why Fichte?
Readers have been asking me why I am devoting multiple essays to J. G. Fichte, an exceedingly difficult and seldom-read German Idealist born in 1762. The simple answer is that these essays are a continuation of my series on Heidegger’s “history of metaphysics.” Having devoted several essays to Kant, I am continuing with Fichte, then will move on to Schelling and Hegel, and then, finally, to Nietzsche. (more…)