Chapter 1 - The early Schelling on the unconditioned

Summary

This chapter presents an outline of Immanuel Kant's project in the Critique of Pure Reason and his views of reason and the unconditioned. It provides a sketch of the most basic features of Schelling's project as it is developed in the Form-Schrift, focusing on how his argument for several specific features of the first principle he identifies is based on Kant's considerations concerning the unconditioned. The chapter then focuses on the Ich-Schrift, noting the main ways in which it represents an advance over the Form-Schrift. It provides a closer analysis and evaluation of central features of Schelling's argument by responding to a series of objections raised by Dieter Henrich. Finally, the chapter shows that Kant's specific views on the unconditioned play a crucial and underappreciated role in the development of fundamental aspects of Schelling's early philosophy.