ABSTRACT
In philosophy, as elsewhere, all the people can do is reform the interpretations that they have of the world, for reasons which can never be finally transparent to the reader. Here Schelling's notions of 'positive philosophy' and 'philosophical empiricism' already point to what Heidegger will term 'world-disclosure', the happening in which the people as subjects Schelling may subvert the subject, but he does not eradicate it are always already located. By keeping itself open to all the resources available, a contemporary conception of reason can, whilst coming to terms with the facticity of reason, still reveal the vacuity of the idea that the people have arrived in a post-modern world in which the people have awoken from 'the sleep of reason'. Schelling’s contribution to the history of modern reason may be labyrinthine, and he often loses his way himself, but certain of the paths he opened are still worth exploring.
