Diss.--Theologie--Göttingen, 1979. / Bibliogr. p. 305-307.

The first chapter explores an anachronistic Kantian critique of Plotinus wherein Plotinus' notion of the One and the soul's ascent to the One is discussed. In the second part of the chapter it will be argued that despite Plotinus' via negativa approach to the One, he commits what Kant calls a transcendental illusion. At this time, Kant's conditions of experience and knowledge are discussed, to show what constitutes as experience. Then, Kant's notion of transcendental illusion is discussed, specifically in its paralogistic and ideal forms. From this discussion, it is evident that Plotinus' idea of the soul is a paralogistic error and his idea of the One becomes the Ideal of pure reason, thereby mistaking the Ideal of the One as constituting ultimate existence. Following this Kantian critique, the second chapter discusses Úankara's view of Âtman. The exposition demonstrates that Úankara's approach is essentially via negativa, that while it is the most humble approach to Brahman, yet it is unable to account for the absolute reality that is essentially ineffable. This discussion focuses on Úankara's belief that people falsely attribute or superimpose qualities to the true Self, because of Avidyâ and that only true knowledge transforms Avidyâ into vidyâ or discriminating knowledge. After this discussion, some criticisms are discussed to show some apparent problems with Úankara's view. At which time, it will be argued that despite Úankara's use of via negativa he commits what Kant calls a "transcendental illusion." We do not have an empirical intuition of the concept of Brahman; therefore, we have neither access to the mystical reality of Brahman as a thing in itself, nor to true knowledge about ultimate reality. Thus, Úankara's view engenders transcendental illusion. The final chapter addresses Schelling's idealism and in particular the view of the potencies at work in God, before God was God. Due to creation, an inversion of the potencies occurs and the outer gains control over the inner. Next, elements of Habermas' view are discussed, wherein he holds a materialistic-interactive-idealist position, as indicated in his ideal speech situation. At this time, it will be argued that Habermas' "ideal speech situation" is idealistic like Schelling's position. Consequently, both Schelling and Habermas' reaction respectively make the Primordial Will and the Ideal Speech Situation into an Ideal and in so doing commits a transcendental illusion.

Thesis advisor: Jeffrey Bloechl / This dissertation addresses the first and most fundamental question in environmental philosophy: how should we conceive of the human place within nature? The title derives from the moment in Descartes’ second meditation when he considers what he believed himself formerly to be: a rational animal. Inquiring into what animality and rationality are would send him down a slippery slope, and he decides that he does not have the time to waste on such questions. Prioritizing the rational over the empirical, the metaphysical distinctions that follow precipitate a pivotal episode in the rise of modern science and technology: a disembodied intellect is freed to discover and manipulate the laws and forces at work in nature, conceived mechanistically. While generating many positive advances, for instance in anatomy and medicine, that break with Aristotelian ontological suppositions also marks the beginning of centuries of violence toward the animal within, not to mention the animals, or animal-machines, without. In response, many contemporary environmental thinkers swing the metaphysical pendulum in the opposite direction. Troubled by the consequences of an implicit mind-body dualism, they assume some rendition of its early modern antithesis, Spinozist ontological monism. God, or Nature is understood as comprising a single substance, with all other beings conceived as modifications of that substance. Such ontological humbling is supposed to produce an ethical humility, putting the human back in its place as one humbled part of the larger whole. Our concern is that without important qualifications, such ontological humbling merely provides another justification for man’s modern conquest of nature, in accordance with instrumentalizing, human-centered ends. If the human is conceived as merely one more species among others, we boast an equal right to act in accordance with the powers of our own natures. In response, we develop a thesis that builds from insights in the works of Maurice Merleau- Ponty. We argue that Merleau-Ponty’s thought is characterized by an “archeological,” or origin-directed orientation, according to which he eventually theorizes a phenomenological analogue to Spinoza’s ontological monism: his instigating insight is that both the perceiver, or the subject, and the perceived, or the object, derive from a common ontological fabric. Beginning from insights indicative of a contrary, but complimentary orientation present in Merleau-Ponty’s early works, we begin to construct a “developmental” account to balance out his increasingly “archeological” path, introducing qualifications that orient his thought in an ethical direction. The integrative ethical ideal that we propose entails a developmental, rather than regressive “descent” of the animal slope (le versant animal), without undermining or denying ethical capacities and responsibilities that are specifically human. Drawing from the works of Schelling’s middle period to which Merleau-Ponty turns in his late lectures on Nature, we argue that we must acknowledge tendencies toward violence and domination present within nature itself—and, consequently, present within us, as part of nature—such that becoming fully human would demand the overcoming of those tendencies in the service of a higher ethical ideal. Taking a cue from Schelling’s Freiheitsschrift, we propose an integrative ideal of self-giving love. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

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Através da noção de Abfall, de Schelling, apresentada no texto Filosofia e Religião (1804), esta tese procura mostrar a integralidade da fundamentação objetiva para a reconstrução do mundo ideal, ou do ideal da razão enquanto organismo vivo. Para tanto, num primeiro momento, reconstruiremos o caminho para o Sistema do Idealismo Transcendental e, com isso, apresentaremos a dialética da imaginação como forma sistemática do Eu enquanto princípio. Num segundo momento, mostraremos como essa forma sistemática é ampliada enquanto princípio ou como uma forma formante de sujeito e objeto no Absoluto. Num terceiro e conclusivo momento, mostraremos a fundamentação da essência da identidade alma-Absoluto na intuição intelectual, entendida como princípio e conhecimento que supera infinitamente toda determinação conceitual e, ao mesmo tempo, efetiva o princípio transcendental e a causa imanente da equipossibilidade volitiva e cognitiva do puro sujeitoobjeto. / Through Schellings notion of Abfall as presented in Philosophy and Religion (1804), this thesis seeks to show the integrality of the objective foundation of the ideal world\'s reconstruction or of the ideal of reason as a living organism, so that the finite, as it exists in the limitated and temporal world, presents itself in a way somehow infinite. It aims at the difficult that pervades the author\'s whole philosophy of identity: the problem of the sense of finitude and time sense in a philosophy where the Absolute does not go out of itself. Our thesis is that: if the reason ideal is the most distant of what can be determined, and if it realises itself just in individuo, then such realization is necessarily something universal in two vectors of only one action: on the one hand ideas are determined in individuo if and only if in the unity of the ideal of reason; on the other hand, ideas are determined in individuo by absolute freedom, because the Absolute refers to the producing individual through the eternal concept of individual; in other words, through the soul understood as a Potenz, that is protected inside subject of individual conscience. As a Potenz, the soul is unconditional freedom and as such the source of the concepts of class. Therefore well reconstruct the route to the System of Transcendental Idealism to show the dialectics of imagination as a systematic form of I as a principle. Secondly, well show how that systematic form is extended as a principle or a form forming the subject and object in the Absolute. Thirdly, we\'ll show the fundaments of the essence of the soul-Absolute identity on intellectual intuition understood as transcendental principle and knowledge that infinitely overcomes all temporal determination and, at the same time, realises the transcendental principle, and the immanent cause of the pure subject- object\'s volitive and cognitive equipossibility.

Este trabalho se compõe, por assim dizer, em três tempos. Num primeiro tempo intenta-se construir a noção de linguagem em relação com a mitologia. Num segundo tempo, a relação entre mitologia e estratégia política. Ou seja, o uso da mitologia que se poderia chamar de mitologia tecnicizada. Num terceiro tempo, linguagem, mitologia e política historicamente articulados em simbolização no texto Clara de Schelling. / This work is structurated, so to speak, in three parts. The fisrt part aims at \"constructing\" the notion of language in relation to mythology. In the second part, the relation between mythology and politic strategy. In other words, the \"use\" of mythology that could be called \"technical use of mythology\". In the third part, language, mythology and politics articulated in symbolization in Schelling\'s Clara.

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Thèse--Lettres--Fribourg, Suisse, 1981. / Bibliogr. p. 325-352.

Inaugural-Dissertation--Philosophische Fakultät--Saarbrücken, 1966. / Bibliogr. p. 152-155.

The aim of the present study is to rebuild the way in which Schelling's later philosophy –that which is represented by his reflection concerning mythology and rational foundations of revelation– describes the triple division of the Absolute in diverse potencies that takes place with the entry of God in temporality and becoming. The process that leads to such fragmentation of the divine is interpreted as a formation novel” analogous to the odyssey that the finite conscience experiences as a result of its constituent openness to Being. / El propósito del presente estudio es reconstruir el modo en el que la filosofía tardía de Schelling, aquella representada por su reflexión acerca de la mitología y los fundamentos racionales de la revelación, describe la triple escisión del Absoluto en potencias diversas que tiene lugar con el ingreso de Dios en la temporalidad y el devenir. El proceso que da lugar a esta fragmentación de lo divino es interpretado como un relato de formación” paralelo a la odisea que la conciencia finita experimenta como consecuencia de su constitutiva apertura al Ser.