When Slavoj Žižek refers to Friedrich Schelling as a “vanishing mediator,” he is drawing on a concept used in Marxist and structuralist theory to describe a figure or idea that serves a crucial transitional role in a historical or intellectual process but is ultimately surpassed or absorbed by later developments. The term “vanishing mediator” was popularized by Fredric Jameson, who used it to describe a phase or agent that is necessary for historical change but becomes invisible once that change has occurred.
In Žižek’s application, Schelling occupies this role between the philosophical systems of Immanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Schelling, particularly in his later work, moves philosophy beyond Kant’s critical idealism but does not fully realize the absolute idealism that Hegel would later achieve. For Žižek, Schelling is pivotal in transitioning from Kant’s focus on human subjectivity and freedom to Hegel’s systematic dialectic, where subject and object, thought and being, are reconciled in a more comprehensive philosophical system.
However, once Hegel’s system is fully developed, Schelling’s intermediary role “vanishes,” meaning that his contributions are absorbed and largely overlooked in favor of Hegel’s more dominant philosophy. Schelling’s importance lies in how he provided the philosophical space for this transition, allowing Hegel’s absolute idealism to emerge.
Žižek also appreciates how Schelling’s work on freedom, nature, and the unconscious prefigures certain modern psychoanalytic ideas, particularly the role of the unconscious and the irrational in human experience. Despite this, in Žižek’s view, Schelling remains a transitional figure whose relevance diminishes after his role in the development of post-Kantian philosophy is completed .
