Schelling Aesthetic Thought

Friedrich Schelling(1775-1854) was one of the representative figures in German classical philosophy and aesthetics. The first principle of Schelling's early philosophy was identity principle by which he created his philosophy of identity. The system of identity philosophy includes the philosophy of nature and transcendental philosophy. It was on the basis of the philosophy of identity that Schelling constructed his integrated system of aesthetics which consists of the ontology of aesthetics, the theory of aesthetic creation, the theory of art system etc. Schelling expressed his colourful ideas on a series of aesthetic issues, such as art and philosophy, art and beauty, beauty and sublime, art and nature, genius and art creation, the view of myth, the classification of art, the theory of tragedy and so on. Schelling's aesthetic thought has great influences on German aesthetics at his time and the late history of western aesthetics. The Yena Romantic accepted many of his theoretical ideas; Hegel not only inherited Schelling's historical view and dialectic thought, but also absorbed directly a lot of his aesthetic ideas. The romantic spirit, special sentiment and rebellion to classic spirit in Schelling's thought have provided nourishment for modern humanitarian aesthetics. The paper reinterpretes Schelling's aesthetic theory and demonstrates his unique status and value in the history of German classic aesthetics, even in the whole history of western aesthetics.