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runs from her and running cries “Away with these encircling hands!
May I die before what's mine is yours.” She answers, only “What's
mine is yours!”
Scorned, she wanders in the woods and hides her face in shame among
the leaves, and from that time on lives in lonely caves. But still her
love endures, increased by the sadness of rejection. Her sleepless
thoughts waste her sad form, and her body’s strength vanishes into
the air. Only her bones and the sound of her voice are left. (Ovid.
2000. III. 359-401.)"
“May I die before what’s mine is yours.” This is the rejection of
the “different”, the other as it appears in reality. It is clear from
Schelling’s intention that Hegelian thinking, since it only obtains
in a world constructed and circumscribed by the intellect, is not
capable of transferring itself into actual existence, and therefore
cannot be free. The “Hegelian flower”, I repeat, never grows if it
has no soil, if it is not watered, and if it receives no sunshine. It
is clear, then, that the Hegelian construction is perfectly fine as
a theoretical basis, but in order for it to work in reality, we must
assign “reality” as such to it, or at least it is expedient to do so.
This serves as a message for those of us who may like to choose
hastily or take the position that what, in theory, appears good or
checks out—as they say—or seems pure and logical, is really as
good as it seems. Too often we do not consider that these do not
stand the test of reality or of experience. Testing these theories using
experience seems like the obvious solution, but this cannot be the
ultimate test, either. Just as the mind cannot go without experi¬
ence, neither can experience be without a conceptual foundation.
Schelling calls the philosophy described thus far, which is to say
negative thinking lacking in experience, a priori science of reason (a
priori Vernuntwissenschaft, see Schelling 2007. pp.127). It is a priori
because it can only create a constructed world that exists exclu¬
10 How Juno Altered Echo’s Speech. Narcissus and Echo.