Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom (Suny Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy) [Paperback]

F. W. J. Schelling (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0791468747 | ISBN-13: 978-0791468746 | Publication Date: May 31, 2007

Schelling's masterpiece investigating evil and freedom.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Jeff Love and Johannes Schmidt offer a fresh translation of Schelling's enigmatic and influential masterpiece, widely recognized as an indispensable work of German Idealism. The text is an embarrassment of riches--both wildly adventurous and somberly prescient. Martin Heidegger claimed that it was "one of the deepest works of German and thus also of Western philosophy" and that it utterly undermined Hegel's monumental Science of Logic before the latter had even appeared in print. Schelling carefully investigates the problem of evil by building on Kant's notion of radical evil, while also developing an astonishingly original conception of freedom and personality that exerted an enormous (if subterranean) influence on the later course of European philosophy from Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard through Heidegger to important contemporary theorists like Slavoj Zizek.

This translation of Schelling's notoriously difficult and densely allusive work provides extensive annotations and translations of a series of texts (by Boehme, Baader, Lessing, Jacobi, and Herder), hard to find or previously unavailable in English, whose presence in the Philosophical Investigations is unmistakable and highly significant. This handy study edition of Schelling's masterpiece will prove useful for scholars and students alike.

"The unique combination of the most stringent power of conceptual thinking and of shattering references to our most intimate experiences account for the Philosophical Investigations' almost hypnotic power. It is quite simply, together with Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit and two or three other works, one of the candidates for the greatest philosophical book ever written." -- Slavoj Zizek --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

At Clemson University, Jeff Love is Assistant Professor of German and Russian and Johannes Schmidt is Assistant Professor of German. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr (May 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791468747
• ISBN-13: 978-0791468746
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #399,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Newest Translation, June 27, 2007

By 

Ashley Vaught (New York City, New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom (Suny Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy) (Paperback)

This book is a valuable contribution to the newest literature and foretold renaissance in Schelling research. Although there are three existing translations, all suffer from the defects familiar to the difficult exercise of translation. Among those, the Love/Schmid version suffers from these same problems, unfortunately.

I mention only one serious error (the others largely being unavoidable) in that Selbstständigkeit is translated as 'independence.' While this word does grasp one of the meanings of Selbstständigkeit, it fails to grasp the richness of the word, especially in its assymetrical opposition to Abhängigkeit (translated as dependence). My only complaint is that the translators did not note this particular locution. However, at almost all other places where there is doubt, they are careful to provide the German text.

The advantage of this edition, which over all existing is significant, is the historical apparatus attached to this edition, including translations of several other timely works that influenced Schelling's thinking (Boehme, Lessing, Baader, Jacobi). Although there is a lot of fascinating contemporary commentary done on the text (and Schelling's work at large) in different venues, little of it actually addresses the context in which the Freiheitsschrift was written. The apparatus attached to this edition fills this lacuna.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great text, terrible Kindle version, April 30, 2011

By 

eupraxis "eupraxis" (New Orleans, LA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom (Suny Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy) (Kindle Edition)

This new translation, including the up-to-date editorial remarks and footnotes, is important. However, the numerous footnotes are not optimized at all (you have find them yourself), and the index is unusable. You might be better off with the print edition. Hence the three stars. Otherwise it would have been five stars.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cryptic and wonderful, December 11, 2009

By 

Mr. Steiner (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom (Suny Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy) (Paperback)

Schelling's difficult idealism attempts to provide a positive account of radical evil as well as an account of human will. This is an immensely brilliant and mysterious text, which requires multiple readings. Schelling's philosophy has emerged as a major force in the history of German idealism, and is often the source of new work in Spinozan circles as well. The supplementary texts in this addition are an excellent point of entry to Schelling's work as well. However, the translator's introduction is pretentious and historically suspect.