Abstract
This paper reads the Philosophy of Art by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling as a conception of essence in art that fruitfully theorizes topical questions even in contemporary debates. Whereas idealism and essentialism are often associated with static and unduly mentalist definitions of art, Schelling offers a complex framework which can accommodate for plurality and development. The synthetic power of the imagination to constitute the unity of the artwork is highlighted, but a theory of reciprocity between ideality and reality simultaneously accentuate art’s historicity, as well as it social significance.
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Notes
- 1.
In regard to the Bell-Fry formula of visual art as “significant form”, Weitz suggests that:
The role of theory is not to define anything but to use the definitional form, almost epigrammatically, to pin-point a crucial recommendation to turn our attention once again to the plastic elements in painting. (Weitz 1956: 35)
- 2.
Prange (2004) contains an ambitious discussion of Schelling’s dissociation between philosophy and empirical studies of art.
- 3.
The existential philosophy outlined in this work is an early treatment of radical irrationality, i.e., the complete absence of a rational (and beneficial) pre-given order. The impact of such ideas upon notions of Dionysian music in 19th century German musical culture is discussed in Bowie (2007: 172–193).
- 4.
The problem continues to haunt correspondence theories of truth even today, at least when it is recognized that an identification of a proper correspondence between description and object requires a common theoretical framework in which the comparison can be evaluated (Bowie 1993: 49–50).
- 5.
“[N]either the real nor the ideal world in and for itself can attain a level higher than that of indifference, and can never attain absolute identity itself.” (Schelling 1989: 27).
- 6.
Mark Evan Bonds suggests the unusual but apposite translation of “tonally animated forms” (Bonds 2014: 147). In this context, it is interesting to read his somewhat indiscriminate elucidation of essentialism:
As a mode of thought, essentialism privileges autonomy at the expense of interaction, stasis at the expense of change. Hanslick treats music as an object, not a practice, and the primary goal of Vom Musikalisch-Schönen is to define what music is, not how it works. (Ibid. 176)
- 7.
Schelling writes:
The system of the philosophy of art that I intend to present here will thus differentiate itself fundamentally from the previous systems, and will do so as regards both form and content; I will retrace even the principles themselves further back than has hitherto been the case. (Schelling 1989: 12)
- 8.
In his 1800 System of Transcendental Idealism, Schelling presented art as the apotheosis, organon and document of philosophy. In other words, art holds a crucial place within human culture as the activity where presupposed reciprocity between nature and freedom, that philosophy itself cannot declare, attains its most complete presentation (see Jähnig 1966: 9–116).
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Lundblad, J. (2019). Essence Facilitating Plurality: Theorizing Art with Schelling. In: Stanevičiūtė, R., Zangwill, N., Povilionienė, R. (eds) Of Essence and Context. Numanities - Arts and Humanities in Progress, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14471-5_3
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