Jean Baudrillard’s Schellingian Qualities



• Jean Baudrillard’s Schellingian Qualities

  Item Type	Journal Article
  Author	Enrico Schirò
  Abstract	This article argues that Jean Baudrillard’s theory of qualities in Les Stratégies fatales can be clarified through a Schellingian interpretative key. Reconsidering Graham Harman’s object-oriented reading of Baudrillard, the paper addresses three related problems: the meaning of seduction as a “passage to a higher level,” the status of absence in Baudrillard’s anti-dialectical logic, and the nature of his theory of qualities. These issues converge in a single theoretical problem structured by intensification, redoubling, and qualified identity. First, Baudrillard’s use of Steigerung is reconstructed as an anti-Hegelian logic of potentiation or elevation to a higher potency, paralleling Schelling’s account in the 1813 draft of Die Weltalter. Second, Baudrillard’s treatment of absence, hyper-determination, and antagonism is interpreted through reduplicative identity (reduplicatio), which in Schelling grounds Steigerung. Third, Baudrillard’s “fatal qualities” are shown to concern not intrinsic and relational properties, but a theory of qualified identity in which a term becomes absolute by absorbing the energy of its contrary. On this basis, the article suggests that Baudrillard’s own strategy for thinking the passage from identity to non-identity without sublation takes shape through a reading of Schelling.
  Date	2026
  Language	English
  Library Catalog	193; 113; 115; 126; 210
  License	© 2026 by Aletheia - Associação Científica e Cultural
  Volume	82
  Place	Braga
  Publisher	Axioma - Publicações da Faculdade de Filosofia
  Section	Schelling’s Legacy in Contemporary Philosophy. Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of Schelling’s Birth
  Pages	171-196
  Publication	Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia
  DOI	10.17990/RPF/2026_82_1_0171
  Issue	1-2
  Journal Abbr	RPF
  ISSN	0870-5283 ; 2183-461X
  Date Added	7/31/2026, 8:54:21 PM
  Modified	8/1/2026, 2:06:22 PM

  Tags:

  • Schelling
  • Baudrillard
  • Qualities
  • Reduplicatio
  • Steigerung

  Notes:

  • Barthes, Roland. Système de la mode. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1967.

    Baudrillard, Jean. Fatal Strategies. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2008.

    Baudrillard, Jean. L’autre par lui-même. Paris: Galilée, 1987.

    Baudrillard, Jean. La gauche divine. Paris: Grasset, 1985.

    Baudrillard, Jean. La Transparence du Mal. Paris: Galilée, 1990.

    Baudrillard, Jean. Le système des objets. Paris: Gallimard, 1968.

    Baudrillard, Jean. Les stratégies fatales. Paris: Grasset, 1983.

    Baudrillard, Jean. Mots de passe. Paris: Pauvert, 2000.

    Baudrillard, Jean. The Revenge of the Crystal. Selected Writings on the Modern Object and its Destiny, 1968-1983. Edited by Paul Foss and Julian Pefanis. London: Pluto Press, 1990.

    Beach, Edward A. “The Later Schelling’s Conception of Dialectical Method, in Contradistinction to Hegel’s.” The Owl of Minerva 22, no. 1 (1990): 35–54.

    Blask, Falko. Jean Baudrillard: Zur Einführung. Hamburg: Junius Verlag, 1995.

    Carrasco-Conde, Ana. “Schelling, Žižek, Baudrillard: la lógica del fantasma.” Anales del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía 30, no. 2 (2013): 505–525.

    Courtine, Jean-François. Extase de la raison: Essais sur Schelling. Paris: Galilée, 1980.

    Dezi, Andrea. Potenza e realtà: Il sovrarrealismo ontologico nel pensiero di F. W. J. Schelling. Milano–Udine: Mimesis, 2013.

    Fantin, Emmanuelle, and Bran Nicol. Jean Baudrillard. London: Reaktion Books, 2025.

    Frank, Manfred. “Identità reduplicativa. Una chiave di lettura per la comprensione della tarda filosofia di Schelling.” In Libertà e Natura. Prospettive schellinghiane, edited by Emilio Carlo Corriero, 47–61. Torino: Rosenberg & Sellier, 2017.

    Frank, Manfred. Reduplikative Identität: der Schlüssel zu Schellings reifer Philosophie. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 2018.

    Gane, Mike. Baudrillard. Critical and Fatal Theory. London: Routledge, 1991.

    Genosko, Gary. Baudrillard and Signs: Signification Ablaze. London: Routledge, 1994.

    Gerlach, Stefan. Schellings Philosophie der Potenz 1798–1854. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023.

    Grant, Iain Hamilton. “Schellingianism and Postmodernity: Towards a Materialist Naturphilosophie.” The Paideia Archive, no. 27 (1998): 32–38.

    Harman, Graham. “Object-Oriented Seduction: Baudrillard Reconsidered,” in The War Of Appearances: Transparency, Opacity, Radiance, edited by Joke Brouwer, Lars Spuybroek, Sjoerd van Tuinen, 129–143. Rotterdam: V2_Publishing, 2016.

    Kellner, Douglas. Jean Baudrillard. From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989.

    Latouche, Serge. Remember Baudrillard. Paris: Fayard, 2019.

    Lefebvre, Henri. La vie quotidienne dans le monde moderne. Paris: Gallimard, 1968.

    Schelling, Friedrich W. J. Die Weltalter: Fragmente. Edited by Manfred Schröter. Munich: Biederstein und Leibniz Verlag, 1946.

    Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph. Die Weltalter / Le età del mondo. Edited by Vito Limone. Milano: Bompiani, 2013.

    Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph. Œuvres métaphysiques (1805-1821). Edited by Jean-François Courtine and Emmanuel Martineau. Paris: Gallimard, 1980.

    Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph. Sämmtliche Werke. Edited by K. F. A. Schelling, 14 vols. Stuttgart and Augsburg: Cotta, 1856–61.

    Simondon, Gilbert. Du mode d’existence des objets techniques. Paris: Aubier, 1958.

    Smith, Richard G., ed. The Baudrillard Dictionary. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010.

    Tilliette, Xavier. “Schelling contre Hegel.” Archives de Philosophie 29, no. 1 (1966): 89–108.

    Tilliette, Xavier. L’Absolu et la philosophie: Essais sur Schelling. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1987.