Schellings Mystik-Rezeption im ersten Weltalter-Entwurf (1811)

In his first version of the "Weltalter" (1811), Schelling introduces a mystical vocabulary which is typical of the German tradition and especially of Meister Eckhart and Tauler into his systematic language. This can only be explained by his fresh reading of mystical texts in the years 1810–11. The purpose of this paper is, firstly, to examine Schelling’s possible mystical sources and, secondly, to compare his use of significant mystical terms with their original meaning in Meister Eckhart. Thirdly and lastly, I shall give an account of the function that mysticism and theosophy have in Schelling’s system respectively and analyse his use of these terms. As a result, Schelling employed a mystical terminology in order to better grasp the nature of the absolute as both spirit and pure potentiality, very much as Meister Eckhart conceived it.