ABSTRACT : To the question « What is time ? », F.W.J. Schelling and Gustave Guillaume responded in ways that reveal affinities in their approach, beyond the differences characteristic of a philosopher's and a linguist's respective preoccupations. This article seeks to shed light on several of these affinities. The two thinkers viewed time not as a « construct » or a « product », but rather as an affirmative force, as a potentiality. They both rejected the image of a river or a Une, in favor of a vertical figure representing time descending from above and existing only insofar as it comes to be each time. For Schelling, time is thus considered an affirmative force that embodies itself in things. In this respect, Guillaume's linguistic recons...