consciousness.”
“Explain that, please.”
“It means viewing nature as a whole; the Romantics were tracing their
roots not only back to Spinoza, but also to Plotinus and Renaissance
philosophers like Jakob Bohme and Giordano Bruno. What all these thinkers
had in common was that they experienced a divine ‘ego’ in nature.”
“They were Pantheists then . . .”
“Both Descartes and Hume had drawn a sharp line between the ego and
‘extended’ reality. Kant had also left behind him a sharp distinction between
the cognitive ‘I’ and nature ‘in itself.’ Now it was said that nature is nothing but
one big ‘I.’ The Romantics also used the expressions ‘world soul’ or ‘world
spirit.’ “
“I see.”
“The leading Romantic philosopher was Schelling, who lived from 1775
to 1854. He wanted to unite mind and matter. All of nature—both the human
soul and physical reality—is the expression of one Absolute, or world spirit, he
believed.”
“Yes, just like Spinoza.”
“Nature is visible spirit, spirit is invisible nature, said Schelling, since one
senses a ‘structuring spirit’ everywhere in nature. He also said that matter is
slumbering intelligence.”
“You’ll have to explain that a bit more clearly.”
“Schelling saw a ‘world spirit’ in nature, but he saw the same ‘world
spirit’ in the human mind. The natural and the spiritual are actually
expressions of the same thing.”
“Yes, why not?”
“World spirit can thus be sought both in nature and in one’s own mind.
Novalis could therefore say ‘the path of mystery leads inwards.’ He was
saying that man bears the whole universe within himself and comes closest to
the mystery of the world by stepping inside himself.”
“That’s a very lovely thought.”
“For many Romantics, philosophy, nature study, and poetry formed a
synthesis. Sitting in your attic dashing off inspired verses and investigating the
life of plants or the composition of rocks were only two sides of the same coin
because nature is not a dead mechanism, it is one living world spirit.”
“Another word and I think I’ll become a Romantic.”
“The Norwegian-born naturalist Henrik Steffens—whom Wergeland
called ‘Norway’s departed laurel leaf because he had settled in Germany—
went to Copenhagen in 1801 to lecture on German Romanticism. He
characterized the Romantic Movement by saying, ‘Tired of the eternal efforts
to fight our way through raw matter, we chose another way and sought to
embrace the infinite. We went inside ourselves and created a new world ... ‘ “
“How can you remember all that?”
“A bagatelle, child.”
“Go on, then.”
“Schelling also saw a development in nature from earth and rock to the
human mind. He drew attention to very gradual transitions from inanimate
nature to more complicated life forms. It was characteristic of the Romantic
view in general that nature was thought of as an organism, or in other words,
a unity which is constantly developing its innate potentialities. Nature is like a