How to Think Actuality? Schelling, Aristotle and the Problem of the Pure Daß

Abstract

In this paper, I address a problem of Schelling’s late philosophy: the relation between negative and positive philosophy, and the role of the “pure Daß” in the transition from one to the other. While the so-called transition is a well known and much discussed issue, recent Schelling scholarship has underlined the difficulties involved in the mere notion of pure Daß. I propose that we can avoid some of these difficulties by taking into account Schelling’s particular and original interpretation of Aristotle’s notion of actuality (energeia) and the way he applies this notion in his late negative philosophy.