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Philosophy of Identity

A philosophical concept aimed at solving the question of the relationship of thinking and being, spirit and nature by acknowledging their absolute identity. The basic principle of Philosophy of Identity is diametrically opposed to the principle of dualistic systems (see Dualism). Philosophy of Identity as a definite philosophical concept is historically associated with the name of Schelling, who tried to overcome the dualism of Kant's and Fichte's systems by advancing a new initial principle of monistic philosophy, the absolute identity of the subjective and the objective, the ideal and the real.

The principle of the identity of thinking and being also underlies the Hegelian system. But this principle is realised by Hegel differently, because Hegel understood identity dialectically, not as an immobile absolute, an indefinite unity, and one indifferently opposed to multifarious being, but as a self-developing logical idea, whose definiteness and diversity are contained within itself as its immanent infinite form. What sets Philosophy of Identity apart from other objectively idealist conceptions is not recognition of the identity of thinking and being, but the metaphysical understanding of this identity. Philosophy of Identity attempts to solve the fundamental problem of philosophy by dissolving the difference between spirit and nature, thinking and being, in immobile and absolute substance.

Ideas close to Schelling's Philosophy of Identity were expounded by Parmenides and Spinoza. At present the ideas of the metaphysical identity of thinking and being are advocated by certain schools of Neo-Thomism. In contrast to Philosophy of Identity, Marxist philosophy bases its monism on the ideas of the material unity and development of the world.