Idealistic Studies

Volume 41, Issue 1/2, Spring/Summer 2011

Alessandro Medri
Pages 69-82

The Ontological Proof and the Notion of Experience in Schelling

In this article I show how Schelling elaborates the fundamental topic of the ontological proof, from the first phase of his philosophy on. I make clear how he keenly penetrates the formulation of Descartes, establishing that it is insuf­ficient in order to demonstrate the existence of God. The fact is, Descartes says that it would be contradictory with the nature of the perfect being that he existed only accidentally; so that it can exist only necessarily. But it is different to say that God can exist only necessarily, and to say that He in fact exists necessarily. From the first sentence, descends only that He exists necessarily if He exists, but this does not imply that He exists in fact. To arrive to the existence, the only possible way is through experience: the reason gives the concept, the experience gives the existence. On this difference is based the hendiadys between negative and positive philosophy, the nature of which I cleared up in the last part of the article.