Schelling’s and Shankara’s Nondual Visions [audio and video]

I was recently in dialogue with a friend and colleague at CIIS, James Barnes. We discussed the convergences and divergences in the thoughts of Schelling and Shankara. To what extent were both after a nondual philosophy? I suggested that Schelling ends up affirming a trinitarian view of Godhead that preserves differentiation (though still a differentiation-in-unity) for the sake of freedom and love, whereas more strictly nondual systems like Advaita Vedanta leave us having to deny these as, at best, relative possibilities, and at worst, falsehoods.

*Turns out I wrote “centripetal” and “centrifugal” in reverse in the chart in the video. The bottom black circle has a centrifugal movement, while the top white circle has a centripetal.

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Posted

March 28, 2012

Schelling

Matthew David Segall

Tags:

nondualism, Shankara

Comments

6 responses to “Schelling’s and Shankara’s Nondual Visions [audio and video]”

dmf

April 1, 2012

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1. Matthew David Segall
  
  April 2, 2012
  
  Thanks for the link. I am enjoying this.
  
  Kant says somewhere “to know the world, the mind must manufacture it.” The “success” (in terms of entropy production) of techno-scientific capitalism comes to mind as a practical confirmation of his statement. Except that techno-science is more about know-how (the practical) and not know-what (the theoretical). Natural Science has plenty of what it calls theory, but I think Schelling would deny that that it is true theory, but would argue that scientific naturalism for the most part remains at the level of model building. To theorize nature would be to become conscious of the idea at work (theurgy) in nature, to bring it to mind a posteriori (anemnesis).
  
  Reply
  1. Matthew David Segall
    
    April 2, 2012
    
    Anemnesis for Plato is not unlike anemnesis for Schelling, who called it the philosophy of mythology and of revelation.
  2. dmf
    
    April 2, 2012
    
    glad it was of some use/pleasure, it was a rich conference and I’m grateful that they made it publicly available.
Matthew David Segall

April 2, 2012

Turns out I wrote “centripetal” and “centrifugal” in reverse in the chart in the video. The bottom black circle has a centrifugal movement, while the top white circle has a centripetal.

Reply
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April 29, 2012

[…] Schelling’s and Shankara’s Nondual Visions (footnotes2plato.com) […]

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