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MARTIN MOORS
is indeed also acguired by a gradual liberation, though in this case it concerns
a knowledgeable ascension from the concrete to the spiritual, toward the pure
causes.!
Philosophy cannot really initiate into the mysteries in the way mythology
does. The philosophical point of departure, which is shaped by principles of
self-conscious logical comprehension, does not allow any access to mysteries
lying beyond the scope of reason. This is particularly true in philosophical
inquiries rationalistically shaped by mere logical principles of science, as is
the case in Modernity (neuere Philosophie).
PART I: THE LATER SCHELLING’S PRESENTATION OF
AN ACCOUNT OF MYSTERIES /MYSTERIENLEHRE]
AND HIS “POSITIVE” PHILOSOPHY OF REVELATION
A. Searching for Access to Mysteries:
Philosophy Faced with an Immanent Paradox
As a paradox, the main operative faculty of philosophical comprehension
cannot reflectively perform a time-lapse into a pre-reflective state in order
to enter the mystagogical realm in which mythology is lived as true reality.
Yet the mysteries as such can very well be conceived of as items that belong
specifically to a philosophy of mythology and revelation. The philosopher’s
reflection can very well reach a domain of representations which—as in
mythology—positively manifest themselves. Without falling into the trap
of ideology, the philosopher can investigate the mysteries that lie before
him (in given religions) only in a deictic mode which values their proper
positivity. The said domain of representations thus wavers between two
modes of knowing. On the one hand, there is the knowing which is positively
expressed in its tautegorical? self-manifestation, i.e. the knowing logos of
the mytho-logos, which represents an “account of mysteries” (Schelling’s
idea of Mysterienlehre). On the other hand, all that which is—in one way or
another—cognizance of positive reality can without contradiction become
subject of a logos which knows itself, i.e., can become subject matter for
an investigation according to principles that are valued in philosophy, i.e.,
the philosophy of mythology. Consequently, it is appropriate to study by close
1 FW.J. Schelling, Urfassung der Philosophie der Offenbarung, Hrsg. Walter E. Ehrhardt,
Hamburg, Meiner (Philosophische Bibliothek Band 445a), 1992. We abbreviate as Urfassung
and indicate the number of the Lecture and pagination— here 41“ Lecture, 315. All English
translations from this book are mine.
> For an elucidation of the meaning of this neologism, see footnotes 419-420 below.
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