Schelling, Hegel, and the Philosophy of Nature

Benjamin Berger is Visiting Assistant Professor and the current director of the philosophy program at the University of Hartford. He is the co-author of The Schelling–Eschenmayer Controversy, 1801 (2020) and co-editor of The Schelling Reader (2021).

"Berger’s lucid and provocative text demonstrates the critical importance of The Philosophy of Nature to the very coherence of Schelling and Hegel, indicating both their proximity and divergence. This is an important contribution to the emerging re-evaluation of the legacy of German Idealism."Jason M. Wirth, Seattle University, USA"Not only does this book do important work in clearly explicating key aspects of Schelling’s philosophy of nature, it also invites us to remember how similar Hegel and Schelling really are – and it is therefore able to highlight fundamental aspects of their shared project that is so often occluded by the tendency to pit them against one another. A compelling work that is likely to become a central text in the field of German idealism."Charlotte Alderwick, University of the West of England, UK

• Introduction Part 1: Schelling 1. Subjectivity in Nature 2. Dynamics, Physics, Organics 3. The Generation of Spirit Part 2: Hegel 4. Nature as Self-External Reason 5. Nature’s Logic 6. The Self-Formation of Matter 7. Life and the Liberation of Spirit Part 3: Conclusion 8. Logical Emergence and the History of Nature