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Just wondering. I know little about Schelling and was reading a commentary by Forster on his philosophy of nature. Some of the ideas, such as "irritability" and production of the Umwelt recalled terms from Niklas Luhmann's systems theory.

A quick, incomplete glance at some of my Luhmann indexes doesn't find Schelling listed. Is there any explicit influence or connecting lineage here, or just a coincidence of common terms?

Nelson Alexander
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It is very hard to prove a negative, but I am pretty confident that there is no direct influence after checking a lot of English and German sources.

They do have some similarities, probably because Schelling was one of the first to have a systematic philosophy of nature.

Some sources suggest an indirect influence via Friedrich Schleiermacher though, maybe that is a place where you can continue your search.

Not much, but that is all I could find.

Philip Klöcking
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  • Thanks for looking, sounds pretty convincing. And I think it was by your recommendation that I got Forster's "The 25 Years of Philosophy," such a funny title. Very good, kind of idiosyncratic, and I'm not yet up to Hegel. – Nelson Alexander Apr 28 '21 at 22:20
  • @NelsonAlexander The book is a jewel. Even if one does not agree with his line of argument, he provides all the source material to build one's own. – Philip Klöcking Apr 29 '21 at 04:57