Schelling reading group: First Outline of a System of the Philosophy of Nature

At this meeting we will continue discussing the Third Division, beginning with Section III, from the Graduated Series of Stages in Nature, to the end of the Theater of the Dynamic Organization of the Universe.

We have read several of Friedrich Schelling's works, including Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom (1809), Ages of the World (c. 1815), and the Historical-Critical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mythology (1845), Anyone with an interest in philosophy is free to join in the meetings.

The edition we will be using can be found here: https://www.amazon.ca/First-Outline-System-Philosophy-Nature/dp/0791460045

PDF:
https://monoskop.org/images/1/17/Schelling_Friedrich_First_Outline_of_a_System_of_the_Philosophy_of_Nature.pdf

The introduction to Ideas Toward a Philosophy of Nature (1797) is good supplementary reading, and can be found here:
https://annas-archive.org/md5/40a5728d516263c265ba4f1cca939a4f

Please note that, for the foreseeable future, the meetings will be held at 11:30 PM ET (8:30 PM PT).

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About the text:

First Outline of a System of the Philosophy of Nature is F. W. J. Schelling's first systematic attempt to articulate a complete philosophy of nature. Appearing here in English for the first time, this is Schelling's vital document of the attempts of German Idealism and Romanticism to recover a deeper relationship between humanity and nature and to overcome the separation between mind and matter. Written in 1799 and building upon his earlier work, the text provides the most inclusive exposition of Schelling's philosophy of the natural world. He presents a startlingly contemporary model of an expanding and contracting universe; a unified theory of electricity, gravity magnetism, and chemical forces; and, perhaps most importantly, a conception of nature as a living and organic whole.