Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling

Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von (1775–1854), German philosopher. Influenced by Baruch Spinoza, J.G. Fichte, and others, he developed a concept of an absolute unity of mind and matter toward which all history and nature progressed. Although once a close friend of G.W.F. Hegel, he became an opponent and rival. His view of art as the union of the natural and the spiritual influenced Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Schelling's contemporary and an English poet and philosopher.

See also: Philosophy.