Acknowledgements -- INTRODUCTION -- Situating Schelling -- Metaphor and metaphysics -- Stages in Schelling's philosophy -- 1 ABSOLUTE BEGINNINGS -- Fichte and Spinozism -- Jacobi, Fichte, and the Pantheism controversy -- The ground of judgement -- 2 THE HERMENEUTICS OF NATURE -- Matter and life -- The productivity of nature -- Nature as visible mind -- The facticity of nature -- 3 THE HISTORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE TRUTH OF ART -- The path to the self -- Self-reference and art -- 4 IDENTITY PHILOSOPHY -- The identity of the Absolute -- Moving beyond the I: the break with Fichte -- Transitive being and identity -- Identity and 'differance' -- Schelling, Rorty and Davidson -- Absolute reflection -- The problem of transition -- 5 FREEDOM, ONTOLOGY AND LANGUAGE -- Ground and freedom -- World-making -- Word-making -- 6 SCHELLING OR HEGEL? -- Introduction -- Reflection and inversion -- The limits of negative philosophy -- Positive philosophy -- Concept and being -- The logic of reflection -- Non-identity -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- A list of translations of Schelling's works -- Index.