IdeasforaPhilosophyofNature(TextsinGermanPhilosophy)

ThisisanEnglishtranslationofSchelling'sIdeasforaPhilosophyofNature(firstpublishedin1797andrevisedin1803),oneofthemostsignificantworksintheGermantraditionofphilosophyofnatureandearlynineteenth-centuryphilosophyofscience.ItstandsinoppositiontotheNewtonianpictureofmatterasconstitutedbyinert,impenetrableparticles,andarguesinsteadformatterasanequilibriumofactiveforcesthatengageindynamicpolaroppositiontooneanother.Intherevisionsof1803Schellingincorporatedthisdialecticalviewintoaneo-Platonicconceptionofanoriginalunitydivideduponitself.Thetextisofmorethansimplyhistoricalinterest:itsdaringandoriginalvisionofnature,philosophy,andempiricalsciencewillproveabsorbingreadingforallphilosophersconcernedwithpost-KantianGermanidealism,forscholarsofGermanRomanticism,andforhistoriansofscience.