It was not until the publication of Schelling's Munich and Berlin lectures that we learned the
decisive source for his theory of an »identity of identity« or »identity doubled in itself.«
Schelling referred to what he called an »older logic that was still acquainted with the figure
of reduplication« for instance in Leibniz and Wolff. Philosophers in this tradition employed
this term to refer to the specification of an aspect under which the subject-term is being
considered. An often quoted example: »As consul Fabius Maximus has authority over his father
but as son he stands under his father's authority.« Schelling gave the following turn to
'reduplication': Nature as nature does not coincide with the mind and the mind as mind does
not coincide with nature. Both have different truth conditions so as to »integrate« an
essential moment of difference into the identity formula. There is an X however which is
strictly (»seamlessly«) identical with itself (the absolute subject = X) while »transitively
being« both of them in turn and it is only via X that the relata (nature and mind) are
indirectly identified with each other: 'X is B' and 'X is A' (and 'X is strictly identical to
itself').In addition to this Schelling held a view of predication as kind of identification.
He became acquainted with this view at the Tübingen Seminary through his teacher Gottfried
Ploucquet. This insight helps us understand why Schelling reasonably thought that the
identity-formula 'A=A' is the genuine 'matrix' of all veridical judgments. Taken together with
his conviction that judging (Kant's 'relative position') is a 'minor' (or 'inferior') form of
existential being (Kant's 'absolute position') sheds light on why in 1806 Schelling made the
radical contention in his Aphorisms: »The strict sense of being (absolutely posited seamless
self-sameness) is taken over by the looser sense of the copulative 'is' which identifies
subject and predicate yes this copula alone is existence itself and nothing else.«Why should
Schelling's conception of nature-mind identity interest recent philosophers of mind? Because
Schelling presents an ontologically neutral solution: Identity is a symmetrical relation that
does not favor mind or matter and prevents the 'idealistic' reduction of nature to the mind.
Nor can we conceive of the nature-mind identity as a fact inwardly disclosed to the mind
(McGinn Levine). Consciousness remains an enigma for itself so does its identity with nature.
Schelling teaches us that identity theories are not justified by self-evidence but by an
inference to the best explanation.
