System des transzendentalen Idealismus

work by Schelling

Also known as: “System of Transcendental Idealism”

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July 14, 2026

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The System des transzendentalen Idealismus (1800) is a significant work by German philosopher F.W.J. Schelling. This work, influenced by Kant and Schiller, emerged as a response to the skeptical challenges of empiricism and aimed to restore reason's prominence.12

Schelling argued that thought and being are distinct ontological categories. He proposed that philosophy should embrace poetry and intuition rather than solely relying on logic to grasp the absolute, or ultimate reality. This perspective resonated with his Romantic contemporaries and emphasized an "intellectual intuition" as the means to comprehend the Absolute. The work sought to unify Schelling's concept of nature with Fichte's philosophy, suggesting that art mediates between the natural and spiritual spheres.12

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continental philosophy
Schelling
In the System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), an early work that was profoundly influenced by Kant’s Critique of Judgment (1790) as well as by the aesthetic writings of Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), Schelling recommended that philosophy “flow back…into the universal ocean of poetry.” He simultaneously prophesied the advent…
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In the System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), an early work that was profoundly influenced by Kant’s Critique of Judgment (1790) as well as by the aesthetic writings of Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), Schelling recommended that philosophy “flow back…into the universal ocean of poetry.” He simultaneously prophesied the advent…
Read More

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling
Period of intense productivity
…attested by his famous work System des transzendentalen Idealismus (1800; System of Transcendental Idealism), to unite his concept of nature with Fichte’s philosophy, which took the ego as the point of departure. Schelling saw that art mediates between the natural and physical spheres insofar as, in artistic creation, the natural…
Read More
…attested by his famous work System des transzendentalen Idealismus (1800; System of Transcendental Idealism), to unite his concept of nature with Fichte’s philosophy, which took the ego as the point of departure. Schelling saw that art mediates between the natural and physical spheres insofar as, in artistic creation, the natural…
Read More