The Key Role of Chemistry in Schelling's Early Philosophy of Nature.

SCHELLING, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von, 1775-1854; KANT, Immanuel, 1724-1804; LAVOISIER, Antoine Laurent, 1743-1794

This article puts forward the thesis that Schelling's philosophical engagement with chemistry plays a key role in his project of a philosophy of nature. I claim that Schelling takes Lavoisier's new chemistry to indicate that Kant's dynamical theory of matter could provide the basis for a unified account of nature. By dynamical theory of matter, I understand a philosophical explanation of matter based on the fundamental forces of attraction and repulsion. I argue that Schelling combines Kant's dynamics with Lavoisier's new chemistry into what he calls dynamical chemistry, and that this notion of dynamical chemistry underlies his attempt at a unified system of nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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