PHIL 43: Continental Thought

J. G. Fichte

Fichte (1762–1814) sought to interpret, complete, and perfect Kant’s philosophy. He condensed Kant’s transcendental idealism into one single principle, from which he could develop all theoretical and practical consequences. He called this project the Wissenschaftslehre (71).

His work assumes the “possibility of a principle that does not depend on any further presuppositions” (72). This principle is the product of the activity of consciousness, not a thing. It is the I-in-itself.

Fichte’s self posits itself, through the statement “I am I”. It thus posits everything else in contrast to itself. Here, negation is a productive act. “A whole world is created, so to speak, by increasingly relativizing primordial unity” (73). Fichte defended his system his whole life.

Fichte was interested in the social role of philosophy. He “conceived of the scholar as the representative of a true mankind” (74). He thought the I-in-itself and society are intimately linked: only among people can people really become themselves. He deduced society through his system in his theory of law and mortality, unlike Kant, who considered it simply “as a historical reality” (74). Hegel would later build on this work through his analysis of the master and the slave.

First introduction to the Wissenschaftslehre

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Some lectures concerning the scholar’s vocation

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