[Schelling and experiential science].

Abstract

Schelling's philosophy of nature is shown to be part of the scientific discussions of his day, not set apart from it. His terminology describing the potentialities and polarities of nature was formed during Schelling's collaboration with the physicist Johann Wilhelm Ritter. This scientist adopted the schema Schelling had developed for the categorization of natural phenomena to describe the peculiar facts that interested him in his area of research. Thus Ritter was able to develop a classification of the various phenomena of animal galvanism. Thus it can be shown that the idealistic "Naturphilosophie" was part of the scientific culture of about 1800. It is to be interpreted as philosophy of science and has to be evaluated not only in a philosophically systematic way but in particular in its influence on the way scientific categories were ordered at the time. Thereby it can be shown that the idealistic vocabulary had close correspondence to French morphology and English Natural Theology.