Schelling’s Political Thought: Nature, Freedom, and Recognition

In the first study to
examine F. W. J. Schelling’s political thought, Velimir Stojkovski not
only unearths a neglected dimension of the influential thinker’s philosophy but
further shows what it can teach us about our ethical and political
responsibilities today.

Unlike Hegel or
Fichte, Schelling never wrote a political treatise. Yet by reconstructing the
portions of such works as The New
Deductions of Natural Right that deal explicitly with the political and
by thematically rethinking parts of his writings that have a clear
repercussion on politics - in particular those on nature, freedom and
religion - this book reveals the centrality of politics to his oeuvre.

Revisiting his
corpus in this way, Stojkovski uncovers a number of ways we can learn from
Schelling and his reception. He examines how Schelling’s views on nature can
clarify our moral and political obligations to the non-human world and
further demonstrates how the separation of ontology as first philosophy from
the ethico-political has resulted in a fragmented view of the status of the
political subject and thus the body politic. Forcefully renouncing this fragmentation, Stojkovski explores how the same divide has
contributed to the ongoing political turmoil in Europe and America.

Combining an exploration of German
Idealism with contemporary concerns, this is an essential study that will
introduce readers to a new Schelling: a political thinker for the 21st
century.