Liberté et existence; Étude sur la formation de la philosophie de Schelling, and: Schelling. Une philosophie en devenir (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 263 d6pr6cier systdmatiquement une l~riode non sans mdrite dans l'histoire des iddes? I1 est vrai que l'auteur nous avertit que son livre doit 6tre replac6 darts le milieu cl6rical de Fensdignement de la philosophic au Canada. Mais parfois du sp6cifique, l'auteur passe l'universel par des extrapolations discutables. Puis-je suggdrer que la re&bode sociologique appliqu6e h l'dtude des doctrines doit 6tre manide avec la plus grande prudence. I1 n'est pas en effet facile d'examiner l'ordre des n6cessit6s logiques sous l'6clairage de l'ordre des intentions. N'y a-t-il pas un danger de tomber darts le psychologisme si fortement critiqu6 par la ph6nom6nologie? Ecrit avant 1970, quand la Philosophie scolastique avait une trbs mauvaise rdputation, ce livre reflbte aussi son "milieu sociologique." C'est un fair que les logiciens ont reddcouvert les subtiles analyses des traitds de logique m6di6vaux. Bien plus, il semble que sans le renouveau de l'Aristotdlisme de la "scolastique cldricale," nous n'aurions peut-&re pas eu Brentano. Sans lui, Husserl n'aurait sans doute pas congu sa ph6nom6nologie. Apr~s tout, quelque chose de bona r6sultd, incidemment, du renouveau scolastique qui a eu aussi ses penseurs dminents, pas toujours des auteurs de manuels. St. John's College, Camarillo, California E. WINANCE Libertd et existence, l~tude sur la formation de la philosophic de Schelling. By JeanFrangois Marquet. (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1973. Pp. 592) Schelling. Une philosophie en devenir. By Xavier Tilliette. (Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1970. Vol. I, Le syst~me vivant, 1794-1821, pp. 658; vol. II, La dernibre philosophic, 1821-1854, pp. 549) On the basis of a vast erudition, M and T t present the entire philosophical development of Schelling, essay by essay, book by book, with the difference that T dedicates an entire volume to Schelling's "last philosophy," of which M gives only a perspicacious sketch. M tells us in his preface that his book was finished in June 1968 but published only in September 1973. Both M and T acknowledge their mutual indebtedness. In Germany, France and Italy the study of Schelling has come to the point where (in Revue des sciences philosophiques et th~ologiques, 56 [1972], 617-620) Claude Bruaire could start his announcement of T's book by referring to Schelling as "the ingenious initiator of today's philosophy." A similar intensity of study has not yet occurred in this country . All the more urgent is it to draw attention to the availability of these two learned and lucid guides to the work of Schelling. This announcement does not claim to be a review which could do justice to the two books. That could be done onl)' after a year or two of detailed study of what M and T have to say, and after consultation of every passage in Schelling and in hundreds of other writers to whom the wealth of footnotes refer. By count M has 1540 notes and T 3988. These notes tie Schelling into the context of his philosophical antecedents and contemporaries, and also of the so-called romantic literature . The habit of not reading Schelling used to make it possible to shrug him off as just one of the romantics. In contrast, it is the opinion of T that, "like a tutelary figure, Schelling is on the way to reintegrate the movement of philosophy itself and no longer the living culture alone, as he has been doing by his prophetic aperfus. The heads of reigning philosophy are turning toward him, Heidegger and Jaspers in Germany, Gabriel Marcel and Merleau-Ponty, Jean Wahl and Vladimir Jank616vitch in France, while previously Husserl 1 This review will refer to either M or T (vol. I or II), and to the 14 volume.~ of Schellings Werke (Stuttgart and Au~sbur6: Cotta, 1856-1861) as S. Enslish translations are by the reviewer. 264 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY and Bergson ignored him although he had anticipated them" (T, I, 27). Gustav Emil Miiller gave his book on Hegel (Bern: Francke, 1959) the subtitle, An Intellectual History o/a Living One [Denkgeschichte elnes Lebendigen]. The same expression could characterize our two French works. They faithfully present the lifelong...