Abstract
Schelling's philosophy of nature has two sources, one is Kantian and Fichtian transcendental philosophy, the other is the contemporary natural science of his time. In this essay, I discuss Schelling's life-concept against the background of the medical dispute of Brown's "lrritabilitat (Erregbarkeit)-Lehre" in Germany at the turn of the 19th century. Schelling's central interest in life-organisation is the individual mediating his environment. In this context, he accepts Brown's "lrritabilitat-Lehre" through Roschlaub's revision of it and A. v. Haller's concept of "Sensibilitat". So he criticizes its "Ungegrundetsein" and develops it into his triad of Erregbarkeit-Sensibilitat-Bild- ungstrieb. He then inserts this triad into his theory of nature.
