Seite 18 [18]
and respect for the Greeks. Of course, we should also not forget
that in the Tubingen period (the 1790s) that the unity philosophy
(Einheitsphilosophie) centered on the Greek ““Ev kai IIäv” (one
and /or all), which has Heraclitus (DK.B.50.)> as its foundation
gets caught up in the crossfire of the increasingly bitter debate.
The monists (ex. Schelling) and dualists (ex. Jacobi) came into
conflict. This is also somewhere latently in the background of the
debate about pantheism.
In Hegelian philosophy, the “same” is found at the point where
we focus on the fact of knowledge (what I know). Asking how knowl¬
edge is executed (how I know) is on a higher level. This stems from
Kantian philosophy, since the system of transcendental cognition
asks much more about “how” rather than “what”. The method that
is dialectics for Hegel is the same. It is also the same with Schelling.
Schelling, following Kant, keeps Kant’s concept of the “transcen¬
dental” in the focus of his philosophy of transcendental idealism.
The same is none other than consciousness, so the examination of
that will be the primary starting point of our process.
The Hegelian starting point (Phenomenology of Spirit) constitutes,
in a general sense, immediacy and inexplicability, where there is
no real mediation (Vermittlung), no reflection, since that is only
possible after the appearance of the “other”. In its “same” status,
there is nothing to mediate between, nothing to reflect on, and even
no one to do the reflecting nor between whom mediation could
be understood. The “same” thus is the unexplainable, that which
exists only in itself (an sich). To understand it a different way: the
statement that one is the same as oneself is on the one hand true
and on the other hand without content. German idealism (Kant,
Fichte, Hegel, and Schelling) in the 18-19th century absolutely
recognized this. This is, however, the only possible starting point.
We now turn to Schelling, bringing us into the late 1700s and the
early 1800s. In France, the revolution is raging. The disillusioning
5 “Listening not to me, but to the logos, it is wise to agree that all things are
one.” (Heraclitus)