Similar to Fichte's The Foundations of All Knowledge and Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, they are a kind of "development history of self-consciousness."In isolation, spiritualism can be understood as pure self-awareness or an Odyssey of the self (the process of returning home, discovering and knowing the self). The nature of the a priori mode of inquiry can only be a continuous activity in which the subjective makes itself its object. The organ of transcendental philosophy is inner sense, which is also a constructive activity in which objects are freely created, "people must be both created and at the same time creator."The self is not a thing, but a concept of higher activity. "Self" is self-bearing and self-supporting, objectively manifested as eternal generation, subjectively manifested as infinite creation. Existence is only suspended freedom. The proposition of transcendental idealism is: "Through the activity of self-consciousness, the ego makes itself its own object." The infinite expression of the self in the finite state is "infinite generation". The unity of subject and object replaces the phenomenon. -thing in itself, These discourses and deductive processes are reminiscent of what Novalis calls "Philosophy is really homesickness, it is the urge to be at home everywhere."

So this is the fourth book I've read by Schelling. I really haven't read them chronologically; actually quite the opposite. I read the Philosophy Of Mythology first; then his Philosophy Of Human Freedom; then his Philosophy Of Nature, and then this work. I've liked all of them to a degree. Schelling's system developed over time and in the course of a number of works. When he wrote the System Of Transcendental Idealism, he was still very much a disciple of Fichte and this is evident when one reads this book. Much of his thought here depends on Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre. Basically, it's a discourse on dichotomous notions of being. Taking the basis from Fichte's system of the "I" and the "not I", Schelling investigates the bridging of opposites, e.g. self/not self, finitude/infinitude, limitlessness/limitedness, unconsciousness/consciousness, passivity/activity, subjectivity/objectivity, etc. A lot of this was investigated in Fichte's works related to the Wissenschaftslehre (loosely translated as the "Science of Knowledge/Knowing"), which I am very acquainted with. I purposely read Fichte thoroughly before reading this work. Both writers seek to make subjective being actively objective in an idealistic manner, rather than in a realistic or empirical manner.
To go over this work in detail would make this review overlong and isn't necessary. I recommend that people who are interested in Schelling, German Idealism, or philosophy in general, read it. I gained a lot from it. I actually probably liked his investigation of art at the end of the work the best. I've also come to appreciate the role that Schelling and Fichte played in the development of psychology as a science. It's hard not to appreciate how much of the ground work was laid by them. ( )