Phänomenologie der Angst

Schelling was one of the few philosophers of his time who attempted to rehabilitate the intrinsic value of myths by showing that myths are not just bizarre fictions of the human imagination, but the modes of being of religious consciousness. Schelling's writings on the problem of mythology should be understood in the context of the debate on the origin of myths that took place in the first half of the 19th century. F. Creuzer was a decisive author who challenged the prevailing Hellenocentrism of classical philology. Schelling knew Creuzer's work, and many of his texts can be understood as a dialogue with the philologist. Fernando Wirtz attempts to show the dark side of Schelling's philosophy, a philosophy that approaches the realm of irrationality and anxiety (Angst). The concept of anxiety refers to the experience of religious consciousness, which is surrounded by the images of its otherness. In this sense, philosophy ceases to be a purely discursive task and becomes a phenomenology of anxiety.