Abstract
The book is an inveestigation of Schelling's metaphysics of nature as it was developed in his private lectures which Schellin held in Würzburg in 1804. These lectures provide a metaphysics of nature because the interpretation of natural phenomena is grounded in an ontological frame which is inspired by the ontology of Spinoza.
The systematical significance of Schelling's philosophy of nature can be seen in his key concept of organism. Schelling is the first philosopher who made the concept of the organism the central concept of his whole philosophy of nature.