Abstract

This chapter examines Schelling’s ideas about nature and freedom from a feminist perspective, looking at his _First Outline of a System of the Philosophy of Nature_ and his later _Philosophical Investigations on the Essence of Human Freedom_. In both works, Schelling argues that two opposed but interdependent metaphysical powers are necessary to the constitution of the world, and he interprets these powers in terms of a gendered polarity. The chapter draws out the ambiguous implications of Schelling’s views as regards the relative value of each gender, and considers how this bears on contemporary possibilities for reappropriating Schelling’s thought, with critical reference to Žižek.