Most recent historians of science regard the Romantic movement in general and Schelling in particular as having turned away from cool reason to embrace emotional mysticism. Schelling's early work, on the contrary, exemplifies a persistent effort to think rationally through basic epistemological problems. He attempted to ground his philosophy both in the certainty of self-reflection and in an experimental understanding of nature. Schelling sought to demonstrate through extended argument and appeal to scientific practice that the basic principles given objectively in nature were isomorphic with...

Most recent historians of science regard the Romantic movement in general and Schelling in particular as having turned away from cool reason to embrace emotional mysticism. Schelling's early work, on the contrary, exemplifies a persistent effort to think rationally through basic epistemological problems. He attempted to ground his philosophy both in the certainty of self-reflection and in an experimental understanding of nature. Schelling sought to demonstrate through extended argument and appeal to scientific practice that the basic principles given objectively in nature were isomorphic with those acts delineated subjectively in the self. The turmoil and tragedy of Schelling's youth realigned the trajectory of his thought and drove it into the science of the nineteenth century. Schelling's theory of absolute identity left many knots still tightly constricting the arteries of the system.