Contents 5
Translator's Introduction 7
Synoptic Table Of Contents 33
Introduction 35
First Book: The Past 41
  A. The Eternal Life Of The Godhead As The Whole Or The Construction Of The Complete Idea Of God 43
    Point Of Entry: The Distinction Between Necessity And Freedom In God 43
    1) What Is Necessary Of God = The Nature Of God 51
      a) the triad ofprinciples in what is necessary of God or the nature of God 51
      b) the unprethinkable decision in the nature of God— the concept of that which does not have being 52
    2) Freedom In The Being Of God 63
      The concept of the spirit without nature = the highest concept of the Godhead 63
    3) The Connection Of What Is Necessary In God With What Is Free Or Freedom 67
      a) the immediate effect of what is higher in God (offreedom) on what is necessary in, or the nature of God— Descent of the eternal nature to the All 67
      b) the organic relationship of the three principles (in what is necessary of God) in its subordination under the purely divine or the free 70
        (alpha) the first potency as possible substratum for (external) nature 70
        (beta) the second potency as possible substratum of the spirit world 74
        (gamma) the third potency = the universal soul or the link between God and the world 77
          This organism of potencies is posited "under the form of the past": the requirement of an (eternally posited) past in God itself 78
          The possibility in the eternal nature of retreating into its own life, independent of God  86
          The intensified concept of what does not have being 88
          Short episode on the importance of the Old Testament for tracing the concept of God  89
  B. The Life Of The Individual Potency 95
    A) The Life Of The First Potency (= "Of The Nature Posited As The Beginning" Or External Nature) 95
      (alpha) the soul, dwelling in eternal nature and creating within it 95
      (beta) the concept of the first (spiritual-corporeal) matter 100
        discussion of the concept of prime matter (alchemy) 100
    B) The Being Of The Second Potency Or Of That Which Is The Substratum Of The Spirit World 104
      (alpha) the distinction in the placement of the principles between nature and the spirit world and vice versa 104
      (beta) the similarity of the process in the emergence of the spirit world and the analogy between the forces prevailing in the inner life with the magnetic state (excursus on magnetism, the gradations of magnetic sleep, etc.)  105
    C) The Universal Soul In Its Relationship To God And The Comportment Of God With Respect To Being 112
  C. The Actual Assumption Of Being (= Revelation = Birth) By God 115
    A) Its Possibility 115
    B) Its Actuality 118
      (alpha) precedence of the negating or enclosing will (= God active as nature, whereby God posits in the state of possibility) 118
      (beta) consequence of this emergence of God as negating will 129
        aa) construction of the cosmos 129
        bb) hint at the simultaneously happening activation of the spirit world  140
        cc) relationship of this activation to that which has being itself ( = to the pure Godhead)  141
  General Discussion Of The Doctrine Of Pantheism Developed Here - The necessity of a higher realism Spinoza; Fichte and the Philosophy of Nature 144 
German—English Lexicon 149
English—German Lexicon 161
Appendix: Schelling Editions 171
Notes 173
  Translator’S Introduction 173
  The Ages Of The World 176
Index 189