A Study Of Schelling S Ontoloeical Aesthetics

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling(Schelling,1775-1854)was one of the foremost exponents of classical German aesthetics and a controversial theorist.Many people consider Schelling to be the changeable "Proteus" whose ideas and theories have changed throughout his academic career.However,in Schelling’s philosophical and aesthetic thoughts,there has always been a main line of "ontology",a basic structure that "unites completely opposites",and a consistent ultimate goal of "proving the existence of God".Schelling’s philosophical and aesthetic thoughts shifted from the traditional European epistemology to the path of Ontology,and he is usually regarded as the forerunner of European existentialism.In the past,researchers believed that Schelling’s ontology thoughts mainly existed in his later philosophy of mythology and revelation,but his ontological thoughts,especially the thoughts of the ontological aesthetics,had already appeared in his earlier philosophy of nature,transcendental philosophy,philosophy of art,and middle philosophy of the world age.From the perspective of ontological aesthetics,we study Schelling’s aesthetic thoughts from five aspects:the ontological turning,the ontological view of art,the ontological mythological view,sublime view of tragedy,the view of nature as subject and the natural aesthetics.As Heidegger said in his discussion of Schelling’s "ontological turn",Schelling is"another image" in German classical philosophy and aesthetics that distinguishes him from Hegel.Schelling tried to use "philosophy of identity" to understand the world as a living whole that develops in the real,adopting a "subject-object" position that reconciles the subject and the object through the philosophy of identity.But he already had the philosophical concept of "being is prior to thinking" in his early thought.He pointed out that "Existence comes first,thinking comes second or immediately after".And this is the central proposition of Ontology.Schelling knew that the depth of philosophy never stops at the level of "real things that exist",so "existence" is the beginning for Schelling,and then,through self-knowledge,the existence gradually climbs along the potency and finally reaches the highest potency,realizing the absolute identity of the reality and the idea.The potency is a force that makes the transition of"existence" from potential to reality,and it is also the way of expressing and presenting existence.Schelling transcended rational determinism through the aesthetic and artistic ontology of the philosophy of identity,and thus initially stepped into the academic track of ontology,until the period of the philosophy of the world age,when Schelling began to truly move towards theological ontology,he fully affirmed the existence of God,and regarded human rational existence as historical "negative sense" of existence.indicating his clear position of the theological ontology.For the first time in world history,Schelling’s philosophy of art elevated art to a higher status equal to philosophy,and art is no longer a subordinate inferior tool that serves religion or morality but became a true science.The beauty of art,the truth of philosophy and the goodness of virtue are the three different aspects of the absolute,and in Schelling,art is located above the highest potency,art is a synthesis of philosophy and virtue,and Schelling gives art an ontological meaning.Schelling in the philosophy of art adopts the method of intellectual intuition of art,that is,aesthetic intuition,and Schelling’s intellectual intuition is very similar to the method of"phenomenological reduction" in Husserl’s phenomenology,which can be regarded as a quasi-phenomenological research method.Schelling also adopts a unique way of combining the potency and the integrated building of "the union of the universal and the special" to construct the philosophy of art.In which he not only frames the material of art,but also frames the form of art.The material is flesh and blood,the form is the skeleton,for Schelling,art is a living existence.And philosophy of art is the fundamental way of life of people with holistic significance.Thus,Schelling’s ontological turn in philosophical aesthetics and art was completed.Mythology occupies an important place in Schelling’s philosophy and aesthetics,and Schelling affirms the legitimacy and reality of mythology and recognizes it as an independent form of consciousness.For Schelling,mythology was the true science of mythology and the precursor of philosophy,which not only preceded philosophy in time but already contained the basic framework of philosophy.Schelling formalized the philosophy of mythology,which marked that mythology was no longer a mere instrument,nor some pure object of philosophy.Philosophy of mythology studies the existence of mythology and asks questions about the essence and significance of mythology.Schelling pointed out that mythology,as the history of the gods,is a real existence,a real event actually experienced in the consciousness of mankind.In this case,the existence of mankind is the premise of the emergence of mythology,and Schelling’s philosophy of mythology is thus guided by the divine essence to the human nature,and the mythology has become the highest way of human existence.Schelling eventually sought the answers to the mythological questions:the time of the emergence of mythology is the period of the emergence of the nation,and its birthplace is the primordial consciousness of mankind,and its essence is "successive polytheism".Mythology emerges through the mythological process,which starts from relative monotheism,to successive polytheism,and finally to true monotheism,and this gradually rising process is the upgrading process of the unity of opposites in the potency,from which mythology plays a transitional role and is an indispensable link in the reconstruction of the unity.The purpose of mythology is to destroy the one-sided only God and relative monotheism,to lay the foundation for the ultimate "true monotheism",to liberate humanity from a state of bondage,oppression,and unfreedom in order to move towards better results and true unity,towards blissful dreams and poetic existence.Schelling himself considered the real value in the philosophy of art to be his discourse on tragedy.The sublime state of tragedy is based on the conflict and unity of freedom and inevitability,and tragedy is also the carrier of the opposition and coexistence of freedom and inevitability.Schelling’s view of tragedy is precisely this sublime view of tragedy based on the theory of free choice,pointing out that the core factor of tragedy is that the voluntary punishment of the innocent sublimate freedom to a sublime state,and the tragic end of the tragedy brings about a complete reconciliation with fate on a level of freedom.Schelling has a high degree of attention to the"individual" as the center of the tragedy in the construction of the tragedy,and the innermost spirit of the tragedy is in the struggle between the tragic protagonist and fate.The tragic hero voluntarily chooses to accept punishment,overflows the greatest’triumph of freedom at the moment of the triumph of inevitability of fate,perishes in the declaration of free will,at this moment,both the triumph of inevitability and the triumph of freedom,and human freedom gains true identity with external inevitability.Schelling’s tragedy discusses the noble spirit of tragedy from the perspective of choice and self-sacrifice,and points his tragic view to the key factor of "man".Thus,Schelling’s sublime view of tragedy has ontological significance.In the face of the industrial revolution’s plundering of nature,Schelling let out a deafening outcry of "It’s time to stop!" Schelling pointed out that nature is not a static object or an object to be dominated,but nature as a subject,a living nature,a nature with primitive productivity and creativity.Schelling’s "nature as subject" shows that man and nature are subjects,and the relationship between the two is the relationship between subjects,which has become the origin of "intersubjectivity" later.In his view,man cannot control nature and plunder nature,but should communicate and interact with nature on an equal footing.Schelling’s view of nature contains the perspective and power of aesthetics,and his natural aesthetic is clearly manifested in the relationship between nature and art.The natural world is the original source of art,and art can capture the moment of natural products in the flow of time,making nature timeless and a complete existence.But art can not see the whole natural world,and nature brings everything together in man,so man has become an indispensable part of the whole of art intuitive nature,art through great artists to gain new life in nature,"man" plays an important role in it.For Schelling,beauty lies in the seamless integration of form and spirit,the foothold of beauty is the indestructible,strong,solid,great form,and the soul is the fundamental reason for the formation of natural beauty,the pouring out of man’s selfless love,and the key to the "elegant" beauty of nature.Schelling emphasized not only the essence of nature’s life and the importance of natural form,but also man’s selfless love and rich creativity,presenting a unique and new natural aesthetic thought.With the ontological theory of philosophy of art,the mythological philosophy of ontology,the sublime view of tragedy based on free choice,the view of nature as subject and natural aesthetics,Schelling has built a relatively complete ontological aesthetic thought system,which is the pioneer and germination of ontological aesthetic thoughts,and opened a new era of philosophy and aesthetics.Schelling’s ontological aesthetic thoughts still has rich significance and high value today,and is worthy of our continuous study and research.But Schelling’s ideas were not perfect,and his absolute idealism,his eventual move towards the worship of religion,and his changeable theories were all flaws,and therefore we should critically inherit his ideas.