Community in Schelling’s philosophy of mythology

MS Alexandra Cain

Abstract:
This paper explores the ground of community in F.W.J. Schelling’s philosophy of mythology.  The concept of community in Schelling has been hitherto overlooked.  Schelling argues that a “common world-view” is “contained and given” to a community via its mythology.  Questions that emerge are, what is a “community”?  What is a “world-view”?  Moreover, what is the philosophical role of mythology, such that it relates a “world-view” to a “community”?  In other words: why mythology?  This paper answers these questions and argues that although Schelling is not a political thinker per se, Schelling’s philosophy of mythology deals with the problem of the opposition between commonality and difference and therefore implicitly generates a space in which to re-think the political.