34

The concept and history of materialism are expounded by Schelling in the dialogue Bruno and in the Würzburger Propaedeutics. Schelling draws from Giordano Bruno the main theses of his own exposition of the doctrine of materialism, but his treatment of materialism undergoes an evolution between 1802 and 1804. Whereas in the dialogue Bruno Schelling concentrates on the opposition between a higher (the speculative) and a lower/debased form of materialism (atomism, mechanism), in the Propaedeutics he identifies the limits that, in his view, are structurally inherent to materialism as such.