German philosopher who read Kant and founded the philosophy of Naturphilosophie. Naturphilosophie was based on the philosophical premise that all nature must be deducible from a single first principle, which could be equated with the concept of "God." The principle that God is in nature everywhere is known as Panentheism. Besides maintaining that every force in nature must be derivable from a first principle, Naturphilosophie also stated that all forces were are modifications of a single Urkraft, or "original force." Thus, the Naturphilosophie movement required that the outwardly diverse phenomena of light, heat, magnetism, and electricity were, in fact, fundamentally identical. This premise held great sway with scientists of the day, and therefore made Naturphilosophie one of the most important influences leading to the formulation and experimental verification of the Law of Conservation of Energy. Schelling said that no philosophers had proved the necessary operation of nature. He brought together theological and philosophical interests, and systematized philosophy. Schelling also disagreed with Kant, believing that doctrines like chemistry were sciences.

Kant