Potency (Schelling)
Potency is a fundamental term in Schelling's philosophy . In his philosophy of nature and identity, they interpret the “dynamic sequence of stages” of the natural processes, with moments of the lower ones being reproduced on the higher stages.
In the introduction to the draft of a system of natural philosophy (1799), Schelling tries to depict the entire development process of nature from unconscious matter to self-confident human beings. At the first level, the first power, due to the interaction of the polar forces expansion and attraction, matter is formed, the external indication of which is gravity. From it the system of the heavenly bodies is formed, which is in an incessant process of change. In the second power, the light breaks out as a quasi ideal moment of matter, which was still bound on the material level. In the third power, matter and light combine to form a self-reproducing organism. This in turn goes through an evolutionary process of shape formation until the entire natural process is broken and a new series of processes begins in human consciousness, human history.
literature
- Wolfgang Förster: Potency, potencies , in: HWPh . Vol. 7, pp. 1167-1169
- Hermann Schrödter: The foundations of Schelling's teaching of the potencies in his 'Reinrationalen Philosophie' , Journal for philosophical research 40 (1986), pp. 562-585.
Remarks
- ↑ FWJ Schelling: First draft of a system of natural philosophy (1799). Works, ed. KFA Schelling I / 3 (1856ff.) 256.
- ↑ Cf. Karen Gloy : Schellings Naturphilosophie , in: Reinhard Hiltscher, Stefan Klingner (Eds.): Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling , Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2012, pp. 93f.