6. Early Views of Fichte and Schelling
he had not accounted for the reality of
the world of nature, with all that it
means to the poet as the expression of
some divine purpose. In order to get
at the bottom of the matter it was felt
that the human consciousness as a starting-point
would have to
be abandoned and an absolute consciousness posited, from which reality could be
deduced in a manner analogous to that employed by
Kant for human consciousness. The first to attempt
such a comprehensive solution of the problem was
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (q.v.). Starting from Kant's
idealistic position he endeavored to overcome the
dualism involved in Kant's doctrine of a " thing
in itself " by bringing this
mysterious reality into
consciousness. To do this he dropped the Kpatian
distinction between the practical and the theoretioal
reason, and conceived of the absolute mind, or ego,
as the moral reason. In his view all existence is
psychical, and the human mind is only a manifestation of the absolute ego. Thus, the last trace of a
transcendent reality is obliterated. The absolute
ego has divided itself into a large number of relative
egos, and through these it is moving progressively
toward
its
own destiny. The core of reality lies in
human personality, in the finite mind,
but
this is
caught up in an endless process of development;
and; hence, in order to transcend his own consciousness and explain the progress of history,
with reference to the past and the future, the
philosopher must look at existence from the point
of view of the absolute ego. In this way Fichte
developed his subjective idealism, bringing into
this scheme of idealistic evolution every phase of
human experience. Under his treatment ethiae,
sociology, esthetics, and religion become a part of
the history of the Absolute. The dualism between
mind and nature be overcame by dissolving nature
in mind. Schelling, starting from the Kant-Fichte
point of view, extended the conception of the Absolute to objective nature. His system may be char
aeterized as a sort of spirituslized pantheism. The
world is a continuous process from inorganic unconscious nature to organic conscious nature, and
then from organic nature back to inorganic nature..
'While in man the Absolute reaches consciousness,
nature remains essentially objective, but not in a
materialistic sense, of course. Nature with Schelling
is a system of spiritual forces similar to
the monads
of Leibnitz. Extending to the absolute consciousness the view that in consciousness subject and
object are identical, Schelling worked out his
so-called Idemitdtsphz'loaophie. The sum total of
existence then becomes the Absolute as perceived
by itself. Naturally all distinctions and qualities,
which are created by
a
finite relational consoiousnesa, disappear in this self-contemplation of the
Absolute by itself, and existence become, neutral:
If Fichte had interpreted existence ethically, Sohel.
ling interprets it esthetically. While with Fichte
the Absolute distributes himself in finite minds in
order to work out his own moral development, with
Schelling the Absolute comes to consciousness
in
man in order that man may enjoy the esthetic contemplation of the unity of mind and ,nature, the
identity of mind with its sensuous content.
