Abstract

This paper addresses the relationship between freedom and negativity in the early works of G.W.F. Hegel and F.W.J. Schelling. Its guiding concern is to locate the role of negativity (and positivity) in giving an account of freedom (and evil). The paper first turns to Hegel’s examination of absolute freedom and terror in the Phenomenology of Spirit. I claim that Hegel’s account of freedom and terror can only escape a bad infinite by taking refuge in spiritual morality. It is in response to this potential of the bad infinite that I turn to Schelling’s account of evil from his Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Freedom. Rather than tarrying with the negative, Schelling’s account of freedom is to tarry with positivity. Instead of going to spiritual morality, Schelling’s tarrying with the positive forces readers to investigate abyssal freedom. It is precisely in clarifying the role of negation (and positivity) in articulating freedom that the differences between Hegel and Schelling become clearer and more instructive for one to philosophically respond to contemporary issues of freedom and terror today. Following the lessons of Hegel and Schelling, the paper concludes by reflecting upon contemporary social and political instances involving freedom and terror.