Abstract

Unabashedly metaphysical in his treatment of aesthetics, F. W. J. Schelling’s lectures are a bold effort to fill a gap in his system of Idealistic philosophy. He had to treat the philosophy of art because “Philosophy is absolutely and essentially one: it cannot be subdivided”. The titanic system that Schelling insists on bringing on stage to study art is enough to frighten the wits out of current-day aestheticians. The theoretical movement here is downward from the Olympian heights of absolutism through a rigorous deduction toward works of art. The system never quite gets to particular works of art. This sounds mad. The intimacy of aesthetic experience and the delightful particularity of works of art are beclouded by such grandiose theorizing.