Schelling e il concetto plotiniano di bellezza. Einbildung e Ineinsbildung nella Filosofia dell'arte

Schelling’ reception of Plotinus’ concept of beauty has been analyzed with particular reference to the Schönheitsbegriff described in the Akademie-Rede (1807), focused on the relationship between fine arts and nature. This paper will attempt to show how the presence of Plotinus in Schelling’s thought cannot be reduced to a mere ‘aesthetic’ question, but rather directly concerns the underlying problems of the ‘Identity Philosophy.’ Therefore, some of Schelling’s reflections in his previous Philosophie der Kunst (1803) are re-read in order to understand to what extent the notions of Einbildung and Ineinsbildung can find a more coherent justification in the light of some principles of Neoplatonism and, in particular, of Plotinus’ concept of ‘intellectual beauty’ (Enn. V 8 [31]).