A mythological interpretation of Schelling's construction of matter

Abstract

In addition to being part of the Romantic movement and German Idealism, F. W. J. Schelling had an essential participation in the strong interaction that existed between the natural sciences and speculative philosophy, particularly the philosophy of Nature (Naturphilosophie) at the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Such is the case of figures such as J. W. Ritter and H. C. Oersted, who used the concept of polarity to advance empirical physics. Starting from the elements of Schellingian metaphysics, the System of Identity (Identitätsystem), a detailed analysis of the speculative construction of matter in his Naturphilosophie, is presented, explaining the three levels of dynamic processes. Then, the basic elements of the Identitätsystem are briefly described. This includes the critical concept of construction, the location of the individual within a totality or universe, and that of absolute indifference, the metaphysical representation of polarity in Naturphilosophie. Expressing construction through the Theory of Powers (Potenzenlehre), it is shown how it is transferred to the field of art and mythology, the matter of poetic creations. The purpose of this work is to use these elements to exhibit, with the help of Schelling's study of the Cabiros, the divinities of Samothrace, the possibility of an exegesis of Schellingian physics and its processes from a mythological point of view. If the construction of matter is the passage from the inorganic to the organic (from Nature to the Spirit), the mythological construction is a passage from the inframundane to the supramundane, where each physical process corresponds to a divinity and vice versa, evidencing the profound and promising connection between the spiritual and natural sciences that is at the core of Schelling's task to conquer the Absolute.