Science Without Reference

Abstract

In Chapter 10, Whistler begins to consider the implications of §73 of the Philosophy of Art for a philosophy of language and Schelling’s philosophy in general. He focuses on the idea of a language without reference as the ideal posited by Schelling’s construction of symbolic language: language must be a self-contained whole that produces reality maximally; any referential function would diminish this. Whistler compares this conception of symbolic language with that of symbolic language’s biggest critic, Paul de Man. Finally, Whistler asks: what does this mean for the practice of philosophy and theology? And he concludes that the amelioration of these discourses is dependent on an intensification of the language they use. Symbolic practices are required.