Buddhist Romanticism

obeying the impulses of one’s nature, because the source of that nature was
divine. But because one could not choose one’s nature, this meant that
virtue had no freedom.
Thus the retreat from his earlier position—that philosophy begins and
ends in freedom—was complete. God may be free in the beginning and
end, but human beings have no genuine freedom at any point in the
timeline.
As the book was being readied for publication, Caroline died. Many
commentators have suggested that her death killed Schelling’s spark to
keep on publishing. Nevertheless, he married again, in 1812, to one of
Caroline’s friends, Pauline Gotter, and the two apparently had a calm and
happy married life. At the same time, Schelling continued to teach and to
develop his thoughts on philosophy. Although he wrote prolifically, he
never published his writings—perhaps because his positions continued to
evolve, perhaps because he sensed that Hegel was ready and eager to
pounce on whatever he might put into print.
The general thrust of his thought during this period was antifoundationalist.
He came to see that the search for a first principle on which
to base all philosophy was a big mistake; the fact that an idea may be
coherent in the realm of thought doesn’t prove its truth in the realm of
reality. Instead, he felt, religion and mythology were the true positive
complements to the negative approach of logical and speculative
philosophy. All truth, in his eyes, begins with the fact that God is free from
all constraints, including the constraints of reason.
Hegel, who had been lecturing to great acclaim at the University of
Berlin, died suddenly in 1831. Nevertheless, his influence continued to
dominate academic circles in Berlin. The king of Prussia, concerned about
Hegel’s unorthodox views and their impact on the Prussian public,
summoned Schelling to Berlin to lecture on philosophy and religion to help
“stamp out the dragon-seed of Hegelian pantheism.” The fact that the king
saw the fate of the Prussian state as resting on Schelling’s lecture series,
which he delivered in 1841–42, gives an indication of the perceived
importance of philosophy in Germany at the time.
The lectures, however, were a failure. Schelling’s increasingly
conservative views on God and philosophy were completely out of step
with the times, and his close association with the powers that be, both in
Bavaria and Prussia, gave the impression that he was little more than their
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