Hybrid Edition of Schelling´s Berlin Philosophy of Mythology

In the hybrid edition project funded by the FWF, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schellings (17751854) Berlin lectures on Philosophy of Mythology (1842-46) at the Protestant Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna will be made accessible to researchers in a text-critical edition. It forms an indi- vidual project (Module 2) in the overall project Schelling in Berlin (18411854), which consists of a total of three self-contained modules, and builds on Module 1: Module 1: Schellings Berlin Philosophy of Revelation (18411845) Module 2: Schellings Berlin Philosophy of Mythology (18421846) Module 3: Schellings Berlin Representation of Negative or purely Rational Philosophy (18461854). Schelling is one of the most important and influential representatives of so-called German Idealism. His influence extends far beyond philosophy into various fields of knowledge. However, there is still no reliable critical edition of his late works available to researchers. Similarly, Schellings extensive partial estate, which is kept in the BBAW archive, has not yet been made available to researchers. The posthu- mous edition of his late works by his son Karl Friedrich August Schelling cannot make up for this deficit. The project Electronic Hybrid Edition Schellings Berlin Philosophy of Mythology (184246) ad- dresses this serious desideratum of research and creates for the first time a digital text-critical and work- genetic edition of the Berlin Philosophy of Mythology. The scientific aim of the project is to break up the monolithic structure of the philosophy of mythology in the Sämmtliche Werke and to scientifically reconstruct its development in terms of work and text history. The project realizes this through a digital database-based open-access edition. Schellings late major work Philosophy of Mythology underwent fundamental further developments during his time in Berlin from 1841 to 1854. This was made invisible by the edition of the late work in the second section of the Sämmtliche Werke, thus suggesting an inner completeness. Only a text-genetic edition, which makes the historical development of the Philosophy of Mythology just as transparent as its complex historical debate context, enables a precise decoding of Schellings late philosophy, which leads to a revision of classical patterns of interpretation of the philo- sophical development of the 19th century. Schellings Berlin version of the Philosophy of Mythology is an excellent example of the further development of the systematic conception of his late work in con- frontation with the parallel developments in the scientific system in the middle of the century. This work is being carried out in three interlinked pillars: a. digital open-access edition, b. scholarly indexing and c. print edition.