Fragments and Diverse Thoughts

Everyone knows that Schelling2 is considered only to have developed the system of Spinoza3 and to have put the finishing touches on modern pantheism.4 From his point of view, it is certain that the visible powers of nature are only affirming themselves when acting in the world and that consequently natural phenomena appear to be logical operations in the world and not material facts. One must not, however, conclude from that, that in this way of considering the physical forces of the universe, nature is considered to be an intelligence and that there is still a reason to cry pantheism. Basically this is only the result of a philosophical phraseology which is imposed upon us by the very weakness of human language and by the need which our reason experiences to trace everything back to the idea of unity - an idea which inspired the formulation of this entire system as is known. The idealist explains nature in the language of spirituality, that’s all; but it does not follow from that that he sees only spirit and idea everywhere. Behind each phenomenon of nature is an act of the spirit, but this act of the spirit in its thought remains always separated from the phenomenon. You reason, you calculate, it says, and you arrive at certain logical results which it is only up to you to realize materially; you find then facts in nature which respond to these results and which seem to you to have been produced by analogous operations; thus you conclude that there is an identity between nature and your reason. That is the point of departure of the system. But it is clear that in it one is not referring to nature itself, but to the power which determines the movements of matter, of which nature is only the whole. But, does this power reside at the base of nature or elsewhere? That is what the idealist is not aware of, and more than that, there is no reason to suggest that power inhibits nature more than any other thing. One knows very well, moreover, that the processes which human reason utilizes are not imparted by the physical world, that human reason finds them in itself, and that consequently their identity with those of nature is only the effect of the presence of nature or of the influence exerted on it by our mind, which is but a primitive fact, i.e.,that there are very simply two intelligences which act independently, each in an identical way, two isolated powers but of the same order. Hence, in my opinion, it is not thought and nature which are the same thing, it is the law which governs them which is the same and sole law, manifesting itself in a certain way in nature and in another way in intelligent being. One of the manifestations is known to us by way of conscience, the other by way of observation; these two orders of knowledge complement one another completely, perfect knowledge being naturally a general and universal knowledge; the particular laws of logic and of reasoning respond to the special laws of nature; there is never any contradiction between what happens in us and outside of us. Unless by an abuse of our liberty, we falsify our judgment, as it is the privilege of an intelligent being is, as everyone knows, to be able to err just as to know. Finally there exists a real identity not between our reason and nature, but rather between our reason and another reason. There is the way one should conceive of the system of absolute identity.