Energeia vs Entelecheia: Schelling vs Hegel on Metaphysics Lambda

Abstract

In what follows, I will take Schelling’s perspective into account regarding what he considers to be a partial or mistaken reading of Aristotle. There are several indications that this criticism is directed at Hegel, although Schelling does not mention Hegel by name in the particular work on which I concentrate, the Darstellung der reinrationalen Philosophie [DRP]. I will look at the differences between both interpretations but will do so from Schelling’s perspective. Then I will address two problems that Schelling’s use of the Aristotelian “pure actuality”: in what sense the pure actuality can be said to be individual, and what exactly is the role of Schelling’s notion of pure actuality in the transition from “purely rational” to “positive” philosophy which, as he says, depends on the will.