Volume 51, Issue 1, Spring 2021
Luis Fellipe Garcia

Pages 27-49
https://doi.org/10.5840/idstudies2021312126
Nature at the Core of Idealism
The Birth of Two Strands of Post-Kantian Philosophy
This paper claims that the inner drive of the discussion leading to the philosophical rupture between Fichte and Schelling is the problem of the independence of nature. I argue that the otherwise rich literature on the subject, by not engaging with this problem, has led to a false dichotomy between two equally unsatisfactory possibilities of interpretation: (a) Schelling¡¯s misunderstanding of Kant¡¯s transcendental method or (b) his overcoming of it. On my account, once one engages with Schelling¡¯s philosophy of nature, it becomes clear that he, just as Fichte, is exploring the inner tensions of Kant¡¯s philosophy, even though he does it in a different and original direction.