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Work #100 · Early

System of Transcendental Idealism

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
1800 · German
Systematic philosophical treatise · German Idealism

The history of self-consciousness — from nature's production of mind to mind's recognition of itself in art

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute System of Transcendental Idealism (Early)
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Emergent
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Both
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Emergent
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Infinite
Matter · Ontological Status Emergent
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Multiple
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Total
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Both
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Singular
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Cosmic-ordering
Observer · Moral Authority Reason
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

System of Transcendental Idealism

Time emerges with the development of self-consciousness. History is the medium of nature's self-realisation in spirit.

Space

System of Transcendental Idealism

Space and matter emerge from the productive tension of subject and object.

Matter

System of Transcendental Idealism

Nature is unconscious spirit; spirit is conscious nature. Emergent identity of the two.

Observer

System of Transcendental Idealism

The transcendental observer is the absolute subject-object in process of self-recognition. Singular at the absolute level; plural at the empirical. Active in the historical process.

Energy

System of Transcendental Idealism

Nature's dynamic productive activity is the substantival energetic principle.

Information

System of Transcendental Idealism

Substantival; the system of nature-and-spirit is the informational content of reality. Personal information is conserved at the absolute level.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

System of Transcendental Idealism

Hegel famously criticised Schelling's absolute as "the night in which all cows are black" — too undifferentiated to do philosophical work. Schelling's later philosophy (Freedom essay 1809, the late lectures) moved away from the identity-system toward a more theistic philosophy of freedom.