However, his understanding of Fichte's ideas and the formation of his own ideas occurred almost at the same historical period, as we know today, in the translation of Kant's philosophy by Deng Xiaomang and Li Qiulin.
After 50 years, when people discuss the translation of Kant in our era, we will say that these two people translated Kant's three major works at the same time to evaluate their historical contributions. We can grasp them from their timeliness.
So, every historical era has an indelible impact on the formation of thinkers. We must never regard a thinker as a product detached from the era in which they lived.
What we should emphasize more is that every thinker has the imprint of their ideas from their time. Because the way in which issues of common concern to humanity are discussed and the resulting outcomes are often different in each era.
Therefore, Hegel said that philosophy, as the essence of the times, the concept of essence means that he can give a philosophical answer to the problems of the times, thus forming his own unique philosophy.
So, in this sense, we can understand Fichte and Schelling, they were both in the same era, and they should have a common understanding of the spirit of that era. They should be able to understand everything that happened in that era. In fact, not only the two of them, but also their little brother Hegel.
Because Hegel also belonged to the era of Fichte and Schelling, in other words, they were all in the same era but had different effects on human thought.
So, we see Fichte and Schelling as a transition from Kant to Hegelian thought, while no one sees Hegelian philosophy as a transition from Kant to Fichte.
Of course, in addition to the factor of time, there is another important factor, which is that Hegel can truly stand on the basis of the ideas of his predecessors. It can surpass Fichte and Schelling, and of course, Kant. He can form his own very unique way of thinking. And this way of thinking is already implicit in Fichte and Schelling, but it has not been revealed.
In terms of intellectual level, Hegel far surpasses Fichte and Schelling in this regard. However, unfortunately, due to Fichte's premature death and short lifespan, he passed away at the age of 53. Xie Lin lived for a long time, even surpassing Hegel.
So, we often ask, what is the measure of a person's value in the world? Is it measured by the length of his life, or by his contributions to human thought or civilization.
If you believe that your intelligence level cannot reach the heights of others in this era, or cannot surpass those of your contemporaries, then I suggest you live a few more years, because your longevity can mask your intellectual deficiencies.
Just like Ji Xianlin, his longevity made him a master of Chinese studies, not because of his achievements, but because of his knowledge and talent, like Mr. Qian Mu. By the same token, compared to Schelling, Fichte definitely surpassed Schelling in terms of intelligence. However, Fichte passed away at a young age. Therefore, in just 53 years, his achievements surpassed Schelling's, and to a large extent, he has already influenced our understanding of Kant.
So, we cannot deny that there are differences in human intelligence levels, that is, different people can come to different conclusions about the same thing. Although from a broad perspective, people in the same era may give roughly the same answers to questions of the same era. However, in this answer, there is always a difference in whether it can truly grasp the spirit of this era, or to what extent it can have a significant impact on the development of future generations' thinking.
In fact, even during the time when Fichte and Schelling lived, there were not just two philosophers, but many philosophers. However, today we no longer mention their names and do not even know that they once existed. And the reason why great philosophers exist is not because they were great at the time, but because they left us with these works, which later generations discovered when reading and had a profound impact on their thinking.
So, it's like the famous quote written by a writer in the preface of his biography of Kant: the greatness of a great philosopher doesn't lie in the romantic events that happened in his time, but in the ideas that his works provide us with. Therefore, what makes them famous in history is their works themselves, not their life trajectories.
Kant was such a dull and monotonous person, his life was so simple and even uninteresting to ordinary people, but this did not affect his ideas and their significant impact on future generations.
Unfortunately, Schelling lived during Fichte's era. He lived in Hegel's era, and if he had not lived in that era, if he had been born decades later than Hegel, I believe he would have been a greater philosopher.
Just like Nietzsche, although he said he was born at the wrong time, to be honest, Nietzsche should be grateful for that era. If it weren't for that era, Nietzsche wouldn't have become a great philosopher. But Xie Lin was not so lucky. Although Xie Lin lived nearly 80 years old, to be honest, his life was not a lucky one because he was born in the wrong era.
Because according to his intelligence level, although it is lower than Fichte, he should never be lower than other philosophers in the second half of the 19th century, including Kierkegaard. On the contrary, philosophers such as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche were actually influenced by Schelling's ideas. Without Schelling, there would be no Nietzsche and no Kierkegaard.
Speaking of which, it seems that Xie Lin is a very tragic person, but in fact, his life is not tragic. He has a high honor. Not only did he serve as a professor in multiple universities, but he also became a famous philosophy professor at the University of Berlin after Hegel's death. He lived longer than Hegel, but he could only live in the shadow of Hegelian philosophy. With the emergence of Hegelian philosophy, Schelling no longer had any role.
So, Schelling's philosophy is only retained in the historical period before the formation of Hegelian philosophy. Once Hegelian philosophy is formed, especially since Hegel began writing his "Science of Logic", that is, "Great Logic". Basically, Xie Lin's voice gradually faded out of the philosophical stage.
Even when Hegel and Schelling were teaching at the same time, the two adjacent classrooms were packed for Hegel, while Schelling's classroom was deserted. They were both discussing the philosophy of idealism and how the spirit develops and evolves.
Hegel's lecture, reading aloud with his head down, Schelling's lecture, delivering impassioned speeches. But Hegel was overcrowded, Schelling was miserable, and the audience was sparse.
So, his tragedy lies not in his untimely birth, but in the philosophy it provided, which has been far left behind by Hegel. Hegelian philosophy has long surpassed him, so his philosophy no longer has any market.
So, he only stayed in the short period of 10 to 20 years from Fichte to Hegel in history. At that historical stage, there were still people listening, learning, and understanding its philosophy. Once Hegelian philosophy emerged, no one listened to Schelling's nonsense anymore.
So, this can reflect Xie Linsheng's untimely nature. Of course, when we talk about his personal life, it is quite glorious. Therefore, holding so many important positions also shows that Xie Lin is indeed very charismatic and inspiring. Otherwise, he would not have easily obtained such a high-level position.
Engels, Kierkegaard, and Bagrin had attended Schelling's lectures, and Engels himself left notes about Schelling's lectures, even mentioning the content of Schelling's lectures in his book. Xie Lin's book.
Xie Lin has written many books, but the most representative one is "The System of Transcendental Idealism". In this book, Xie Lin is actually going to give a complete explanation of transcendental philosophy. That is to say, through his transcendental philosophy, he believed that it was possible to construct an understanding of the entire world, and not only that, but also an understanding of human practical and artistic activities.
So, if Fichte's philosophy is composed of three parts: his epistemological system, his ethical system, and his political philosophy system; Xie Lin's philosophy mainly consists of three parts: his transcendental philosophy system, his artistic philosophy system, and his belief philosophy system.
We can see from this that the focus of Schelling's philosophy is different from Fichte's. At the beginning of the 19th century, there was a relatively turbulent historical period throughout Europe. When almost every European was affected by the social changes in Europe at that time, people were concerned about the position of people in social life, as well as the impact of the basic way of social composition on people.
Therefore, ethics and political philosophy were natural topics that people had to discuss during that era. However, Schelling did not pay much attention to ethical and political philosophy issues. Instead, Schelling was more concerned with how to apply people's understanding of the transcendental self to the judgment of artistic intuition, and how to apply people's understanding of the transcendental philosophy to the discussion of mysterious things, that is, the issue of faith.
