Unconditioned, Mediation, Process

Schelling and Hegel in Jena

Abstract

The Jena years mark the period of most intense intellectual exchange between Schelling and Hegel; therefore, they constitute a crucial locus for examining both the genesis of Hegelian philosophy and the earliest critical engagements with Schelling in Germany. Through a comparative analysis of Hegel’s Differenzschrift and Schelling’s preceding works, the study elucidates their shared systematic concerns, the conceptual frameworks mobilised to address them, and the points of tension that emerge – with particular regard to the relation between the unconditioned and mediation, and thus to the status of the absolute within philosophical reflection. The analysis also reconsiders Schelling’s notion of absolute identity and its modal implications through the scholastic concept of ‘reduplicatio’, revealing a line of continuity, though subject to later transformations, within Schelling’s subsequent thought.