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FICHTE, JOHANN GOTTLIEB (1762-1814)
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See also:FICHTE, JOHANN GOTTLIEB (1762-1814) , See also:German philosopher, was See also:born at Rammenau in Upper See also:Lusatia on the 19th of May 1762. His See also:father, a ribbon-See also:weaver, was a descendant of a See also:Swedish soldier who (in the service of Gustavus See also:Adolphus) was See also:left wounded at Rammenau and settled there. The See also:family was distinguished for piety, uprightness, and solidity of See also:character. With these qualities Fichte himself combined a certain impetuosity and impatience probably derived from his See also:mother, a woman of a somewhat querulous and jealous disposition. At a very See also:early See also:age the boy showed remarkable See also:mental vigour and moral See also:independence. A fortunate See also:accident which brought him under the See also:notice of a neighbouring nobleman, Freiherr von Miltitz, was the means of procuring him a more excellent See also:education than his father's circumstances would have allowed. He was placed under the care of Pastor Krebel at Niederau. After a See also:short stay at See also:Meissen he was entered at the celebrated school at See also:Pforta, near See also:Naumburg. In 178o he entered the university of See also:Jena as a student of See also:theology. He supported himself mainly by private teaching, and during the years 1784-1787 acted as See also:tutor in various families of See also:Saxony. In 1787, after an unsuccessful application to the See also:consistory for pecuniary assistance, he seems to have been driven to See also:miscellaneous See also:literary See also:work. A tutorship at See also:Zurich was, however, obtained in the See also:spring of 1788, and Fichte spent in See also:Switzerland two of the happiest years of his See also:life. He made several valuable acquaintances, among others See also:Lavater and his See also:brother-in-See also:law See also:Hartmann Rahn, to whose daughter, Johanna Maria, he became engaged. Settling at See also:Leipzig, still without any fixed means of livelihood, he was again reduced to literary drudgery. In the midst of this work occurred the most important event of his life, his introduction to the See also:philosophy of See also:Kant. At Schulpforta he had read with delight See also:Lessing's See also:Anti-Goeze, and during his Jena days had studied the relation between philosophy and See also:religion. The outcome of his speculations, Aphorismen uber Religion and Deismus (unpublished, date 1790; Werke, i. 1-8), was a See also:species of Spinozistic See also:determinism, regarded, however, as lying altogether outside the boundary of religion. It is remarkable that even for a See also:time See also:fatalism should have been predominant in his reasoning, for in character he was opposed to such a view, and, as he has said, " according to the See also:man, so is the See also:system of philosophy he adopts." Fichte's Letters of this See also:period attest the See also:influence exercised on him by the study of Kant. It effected a revolution in his mode of thinking; so completely did the Kantian See also:doctrine of the inherent moral See also:worth of man harmonize with his own character, that his life becomes one effort to perfect a true philosophy, and to make its principles See also:practical See also:maxims. At first he seems to have thought that the best method for accomplishing his See also:object would be to expound Kantianism in a popular, intelligible See also:form. He rightly See also:felt that the reception of Kant's doctrines was impeded by their phraseology. An abridgment of the Kritik der Urtheilskraft was begun, but was left unfinished. Fichte's circumstances had not improved. It had been arranged that he should return to Zurich and be married to Johanna Rahn, but the See also:plan was overthrown by a commercial disaster which affected the fortunes of the Rahn family. Fichte accepted a See also:post as private tutor in See also:Warsaw, and proceeded on See also:foot to that See also:town. The situation proved unsuitable; the See also:lady, as Kuno See also:Fischer says, " required greater submission and better See also:French " than Fichte could yield, and after a fortnight's stay Fichte set out for See also:Konigsberg to see Kant. His first interview was disappointing; the coldness and formality of the aged philosopher checked the See also:enthusiasm of the See also:young See also:disciple, though it did not diminish his reverence. He resolved to bring himself before Kant's notice by submitting to him a work in which the principles of the Kantian philosophy should be applied. Such was the origin of the work, written in four See also:weeks, the Versuch einer Kritik idler O enbarung (See also:Essay towards a Critique of all See also:Revelation). The problem which Fichte dealt with in this essay was one not yet handled by Kant himself, the relations of which to the See also:critical philosophy furnished See also:matter for surmise. Indirectly, indeed, Kant had indicated a very definite See also:opinion on theology: from the Critique of Pure See also:Reason it was clear that for him speculative theology must be purely negative, while the Critique of Practical Reason as clearly indicated the view that the moral law is the See also:absolute content or substance of any religion. A critical investigation of the conditions under which religious belief was possible was still wanting. Fichte sent his essay to Kant, who approved it highly, extended to the author a warm reception, and exerted his influence to procure a publisher. After some delay, consequent on the scruples of the theological See also:censor of See also:Halle, who did not like to see miracles rejected, the See also:book appeared (See also:Easter, 1792). By an oversight'Fichte's name did not appear on the See also:title-See also:page, nor was the See also:preface given, in which the author spoke of himself as a beginner in philosophy. Outsiders, not unnaturally, ascribed the work to Kant. The Allgemeine Literalur-Zeitung went so far as to say that no one who had read a See also:line of Kant's writings could fail to recognize the eminent author of this new work. Kant himself corrected the See also:mistake, at the same time highly commending the work. Fichte's reputation was thus secured at a stroke. The Critique of Revelation marks the culminating point of Fichte's Kantian period. The exposition of the conditions under which revealed religion is possible turns upon the absolute requirements of the moral law in human nature. Religion itself is the belief in this moral law as divine, and such belief is a practical postulate, necessary in See also:order to add force to the law. It follows that no revealed religion, so far as matter or substance is concerned, can contain anything beyond this law; nor can any fact in the See also:world of experience be recognized by us as super-natural. The supernatural See also:element in religion can only be the divine character of the moral law. Now, the revelation of this divine character of morality is possible only to a being in whom the See also:lower impulses have been, or are, successful in overcoming reverence for the law. In such a See also:case it is conceivable that a revelation might be given in order to add strength to the moral law. Religion ultimately then rests upon the practical reason, and expresses some demand or want of the pure ego. In this conclusion we can trace the prominence assigned by Fichte to the practical element, and the tendency to make the requirements of the ego the ground for all See also:judgment on reality. It was not possible that having reached this point he should not See also:press forward and leave the Kantian position. This success was coincident with an improvement in the fortunes of the Rahn family, and the See also:marriage took See also:place at Zurich in See also:October 1 793. The See also:remainder of the See also:year he spent at Zurich, slowly perfecting his thoughts on the fundamental problems left for See also:solution in the Kantian philosophy. During this period he published anonymously two remarkable See also:political See also:works, Zuruckforderung der Denkfreikeit von den Fursten Europas and Beitrage zur Berichtigung der Urtheile See also:des Publicums uber See also:die franzosische Revolution. Of these the latter is much the more important. The French Revolution seemed to many See also:earnest thinkers the one See also:great outcry of See also:modern times for the See also:liberty of thought and See also:action which is the eternal heritage of every human being. Unfortunately the political See also:condition of See also:Germany was unfavourable to the formation of an unbiassed opinion on the great See also:movement. The principles involved in it were lost sight of under the See also:mass of See also:spurious maxims on social order which had slowly grown up and stiffened into system. To See also:direct See also:attention to the true nature of revolution, to demonstrate how inextricably the right of liberty is interwoven with the very existence of man as an intelligent See also:agent, to point out the inherent progressiveness of See also:state arrangements, and the consequent See also:necessity of reform or See also:amendment, such are the See also:main See also:objects of the Beitrage; and although, as is often the case with Fichte, the arguments are too formal and the distinctions too See also:wire-See also:drawn, yet the See also:general See also:idea is nobly conceived and carried out. As in the Critique cf. Revelation so here the rational nature of man and the conditions necessary for its manifestation or realization become the See also:standard for critical judgment. Towards the See also:close of 1793 Fichte received an invitation to succeed K. L. See also:Reinhold as extraordinary See also:professor of philosophy at Jena. This See also:chair, not in the See also:ordinary See also:faculty, had become, through Reinhold, the most important in the university, and great deliberation was exercised in selecting his successor. It was desired to secure an exponent of Kantianism, and none seemed so highly qualified as the author of the Critique of Revelation. Fichte, while accepting the See also:call, desired to spend a year in preparation; but as this was deemed inexpedient he rapidly See also:drew out for his students an See also:introductory outline of his system, and began his lectures in May 1794. His success was instantaneous and See also:complete. The fame of his predecessor was altogether eclipsed. Much of this success was due to Fichte's rare See also:power as a lecturer. In oral exposition the vigour of thought and moral intensity of the man were most of all apparent, while his practical earnestness completely captivated his hearers. He lectured not only to his own class, but on general moral subjects to all students of the university. These general addresses, published under the title Bestimmung des Gelehr/en (Vocation of the See also:Scholar), were on a subject dear to Fichte's See also:heart, the supreme importance of the highest intellectual culture and the duties See also:incumbent on those who had received it. Their See also:tone is stimulating and lofty. The years spent at Jena were unusually productive; indeed, the completed Fichtean philosophy is contained in the writings of this period. A general introduction to the system is given in the tractate Uber den Begriff der Wissenschaftslelare (On the Notion of the Theory of See also:Science), 1794, and ttie theoretical portion is worked out in the Grundlage der gesammten Wissenschaftslehre (See also:Foundation of the whole Theory of Science, 1794) and Grundriss des Eigenlhumlichen d. Wissenschaftslehre (Outline of what is See also:peculiar in the Theory of Science, 1794). To these were added in 1797 a First and a Second Introduction to the Theory of Science, and an Essay towards a new Exposition of the Theory of Science. The Introductions are masterly expositions. The practical philosophy was given in the Grundlage des Naturrechts (1796) and System der Sittenlehre (1798). The last is probably the most important of all Fichte's works; apart from it, his theoretical philosophy is unintelligible. During this period Fichte's See also:academic career had been troubled by various storms, the last so violent as to put a close to his professorate at Jena. The first of them, a complaint against the delivery of his general addresses on Sundays, was easily settled. The second, arising from Fichte's strong See also:desire to suppress the Landsmannschaften (students' orders), which were productive of much harm, was more serious. Some misunderstanding caused an outburst of ignorant See also:ill-feeling on the See also:part of the students, who proceeded to such lengths that Fichte was compelled to reside out of Jena. The third See also:storm, however, was the most violent. In 1798 Fichte, who, with F. I. Niethammer (1766–1848), had edited the Philosophical See also:Journal since 1795, received from his friend F. K. Forberg (1770–1848) an essay on the " Development of the Idea of Religion." With much of the essay he entirely agreed, but he thought the exposition in so many ways defective and calculated to create an erroneous impression, that he prefaced it with a short See also:paper On the Grounds of our Belief in a Divine See also:Government of the Universe, in which See also:God is defined as the moral order of the universe, the eternal law of right which is the foundation of all our being. The cry of See also:atheism was raised, and the electoral government of Saxony, followed by all the German states except See also:Prussia, suppressed the Journal and confiscated the copies found in their See also:universities. Pressure was put by the German See also:powers on See also: His See also:residence there from 1799 to r8o6 was unbroken See also:save for a course of lectures during the summer of 18o5 at See also:Erlangen, where he had been named professor. Surrounded by See also:friends, including See also:Schlegel and See also:Schleiermacher, he continued his literary work, perfecting the Wissenschaftslehre. The most remarkable of the works from this period are—(1) the Bestimmung des Menschen (Vocation of Man, 1800), a book which, for beauty of See also:style, richness of content, and See also:elevation of thought, may be ranked with the Meditations of See also:Descartes; (2) Der geschlossene Handelsstaot, 1800 (The Exclusive or Isolated Commercial State), a very remarkable See also:treatise, intensely socialist in tone, and inculcating organized See also:protection; (3) Sonnenklarer Bericht an das grossere Publicum See also:Tiber die neueste Philosophic, 1801. In 18or was also written the Darstellung der Wissenschaftslehre, which was not published till after his See also:death. In 1804 a set of lectures on the Wissenschaftslehre was given at Berlin, the notes of which were published in the Nachgelassene Werke, vol. ii. In 1804 were also delivered the See also:noble lectures entitled Grundziige des gegenwartigen Zeitalters (Characteristics of the See also:Present Age, 1804), containing a most admirable See also:analysis of the Aufklarung, tracing the position of such a movement of thought in the natural See also:evolution of the general human consciousness, pointing out its inherent defects, and indicating as the ultimate See also:goal of progress the life of reason in its highest aspect as a belief in the divineorder of the universe. The philosophy of See also:history sketched in this work has something of value with much that is fantastic. In 1805 and 1806 appeared the Wesen des Gelehrten (Nature of the Scholar) and the Anweisung zum seligen Leben See also:oder Religionslehre (Way to a Blessed Life), the latter the most important work of this Berlin period. In it the See also:union between the finite self-consciousness and the See also:infinite ego or God is handled in an almost mystical manner. The knowledge and love of God is the end of life; by this means only can we attain blessedness (Seligkeit), for in God alone have we a permanent, enduring object of desire. The infinite God is the all; the world of See also:independent objects is the result of reflection or self-consciousness, by which the infinite unity is broken up. God is thus over and above the distinction of subject and object; our knowledge is but a reflex or picture of the infinite essence. Being is not thought. The diasters of Prussia in 1806 drove Fichte from Berlin. He retired first to See also:Stargard, then to Konigsberg (where he lectured for a time), then to See also:Copenhagen, whence he returned to the See also:capital in See also:August 1807. From this time his published writings are practical in character; not till after the See also:appearance of the Nachgelassene Werke was it known in what shape his final speculations had been thrown out. We may here See also:note the order of these See also:posthumous writings as being of importance for tracing the development of Fichte's thought. From the year 1806 we have the remarkable Bericht uber die Wissenschaftslehre (Werke, vol. viii.), with its See also:sharp critique of See also:Schelling; from 18ro we have the Thatsachen des Bewusstseyns, published in 1817, of which another treatment is given in lectures of 1813 (Nachgel. Werke, vol. i.). Of the Wissenschaftslehre we have, in 1812–1813, four See also:separate treatments contained in the Nachgel. Werke. As these consist mainly of notes for lectures, couched in uncouth phraseology, they cannot be held to throw much See also:light on Fichte's views. Perhaps the most interesting are the lectures of 1812 on Transcendental See also:Logic (Nach. Werke, 106-400). From 1812 we have notes of two courses on practical philosophy, Rechtslehre (Nach. Werke, vol. ii.) and Sittenlehre (ib. vol. iii.). A finished work in the same See also:department is the Staatslehre, published in 1820. This gives the Fichtean See also:utopia organized on principles of pure reason; in too many cases the proposals are identical with principles of pure despotism. During these years, however, Fichte was mainly occupied with public affairs. In 1807 he drew up an elaborate and See also:minute plan for the proposed new university of Berlin. In 1807–1808 he delivered at Berlin, amidst danger and discouragement, his noble addresses to the German See also:people (Reden an die deutsche Nation). Even if we think that in these pure reason is sometimes overshadowed by patriotism, we cannot but recognize the immense practical value of what he recommended as the only true foundation for See also:national prosperity. In 1810 he was elected See also:rector of the new university founded in the previous year. This post he resigned in 1812, mainly on See also:account of the difficulties he experienced in his endeavour to reform the student life of the university. In 1813 began the great effort of Germany for national in-dependence. Debarred from taking an active part, Fichte made his contribution by way of lectures. The addresses on the idea of a true See also:war (Uber den Begriff eines wahrhaften Kriegs, forming part of the Staatslehre) contain a very subtle contrast between the positions of See also:France and Germany in the war. In the autumn of 1813 the hospitals of Berlin were'filled with sick and wounded from the See also:campaign. Among the most devoted in her exertions was Fichte's wife, who, in See also:January 1814, was attacked with a virulent See also:hospital See also:fever. On the See also:day after she was pronounced out of danger Fichte was struck down. He lingered for some days in an almost unconscious state, and died on the 27th of January 1814. The philosophy of Fichte, worked out in a See also:series of writings, and falling chronologically into two distinct periods, that of Jena and that of Berlin, seemed in the course of its development to undergo a See also:change so fundamental that many critics have sharply separated and opposed to one another an earlier and a later phase. The ground of the modification, further, has been sought and apparently found in quite See also:external influences, principally that of Schelling's Naturphilosophre, to some extent that of Schleiermacher. But as a See also:rule most of those who have adopted this view have done so without the full and patient examination which the matter demands; they have been misled by the difference in tone and style between the earlier and later writings, and have concluded that underlying this was a fundamental difference of philosophic conception. One only, See also:Erdmann, in his Entwicklung d. deut. Sleek. seit Kant, § 29, seems to give full references to justify his opinion, and even he, in his later work, Grundriss der Gesch. der Philos. (ed. 3), § iii, admits that the difference is much less than he had at the, first imagined. He certainly retains his former opinion, but mainly on the ground, in itself intelligible and legitimate, that, so far as Fichte's philosophical reputation and influence are concerned, attention may be limited to the earlier doctrines of the Wissenschaftslehre. This may be so, but it can be admitted neither that Fichte's views underwent See also:radical change, nor that the Wissenschaftslehre was ever regarded as in itself complete, nor that Fichte was unconscious of the apparent difference between his earlier and later utterances. It is demonstrable by various passages in the works and letters that he never looked upon the Wissenschaftslehre as containing the whole system; it is clear from the See also:chronology of his writings that the modifications supposed to be due to other thinkers were from the first implicit in his theory; and if one fairly traces the course of thought in the early writings, one can see how he was inevitably led on to the statement of the later and, at first sight, divergent views. On only one point, the position assigned in the Wissenschaftslehre to the absolute ego, is there any obscurity; but the relative passages are far from decisive, and from the early work, Neue Darstellung der -Wissenchaftslehre, unquestionably to be insluded in the Jena period, one can see that from the outset the doctrine of the absolute ego was held in a form differing only in statement from the later theory. Fichte's system cannot be compressed with intelligibility. We shall here note only three points: (a) the origin in Kant; (b) the fundamental principle and method of the Wissenschaftslehre; (c) the connexion with the later writings. The most important works for (a) are the " See also:Review of See also:Aenesidemus," and the Second Introduction to the Wissenschaftslehre; for (b) the great See also:treatises of the Jena period; for (4the Thatsachen des Bewusstseyns of 1810. (a) The Kantian system had for the first time opened up a truly fruitful line of philosophic See also:speculation, the transcendental See also:consideration of knowledge, or the analysis of the conditions under which See also:cognition is possible. To Kant the fundamental condition was given in the synthetical unity of consciousness. The See also:primitive fact under which might be gathered the See also:special conditions of that See also:synthesis which we call cognition was this unity. But by Kant there was no See also:attempt made to show that the said special conditions were necessary from the very nature of consciousness itself. Their necessity was discovered and proved in a manner which might be called empirical. Moreover, while Kant in a quite similar manner pointed out that See also:intuition had special conditions, space and time, he did not show any See also:link of connexion between these and the primitive conditions of pure cognition. Closely connected with this remarkable defect in the Kantian view-lying, indeed, at the foundation of if—was the doctrine that the matter of cognition is altogether given, or thrown into the form of cognition from without. So strongly was this doctrine emphasized by Kant, that he seemed to refer the matter of knowledge to the action upon us of a non-ego or Ding-an-sich, absolutely beyond consciousness. While these hints towards a completely intelligible account of cognition were given by Kant, they were not reduced to system, and from the way in which the elements of cognition were related, could not be so reduced. Only in the See also:sphere of practical reason, where the intelligible nature prescribed to itself its own See also:laws, was there the possibility of systematic See also:deduction from a single principle. The peculiar position in which Kant had left the theory of cognition was assailed from many different sides and by many writers, specially, by See also:Schultze (Aenesidemus) and See also:Maimon. To the criticisms of the latter, in particular, Fichte owed much, but his own activity went far beyond what they supplied to him. To complete Kant's work, to demonstrate that all the necessary conditions of knowledge can be deduced from a single principle, and consequently to expound the complete system of reason, that is the business of the Wissenschaftslehre. By it the theoretical and practical reason shall be shown to coincide; for while the categories of cognition and the whole system of pure thought can be expounded from one principle, the ground of this principle is scientifically, or to cognition, in-explicable, and is made conceivable only in the practical philosophy. The ultimate basis for the activity of cognition is given by the will. Even in the practical sphere, however, Fichte found that the contra-diction, insoluble to cognition, was not completely suppressed, and he was thus driven to the higher view, which is explicitly stated in the later writings though not, it must be confessed, with the precision and scientific clearness of the Wissenschaftslehre. (b) What, then, is this single principle, and how does it work itself out into system? To See also:answer this one must See also:bear in mind what Fichte intended by designating all philosophy Wissenschaftslehre, or theory of science. Philosophy is to him the rethinking of actual cognition, the theory of knowledge, the complete, systematic exposition of the principles which See also:lie at the basis of all reasoned cognition. It traces the necessary acts by which the cognitive consciousness comes to be what it is, both in form and in content. Not that it is a natural history, or even a phenomenology of consciousness; only in the later writings did Fichte adopt even the genetic method of exposition; it is the complete statement of the pure principles of the understanding in their rational or necessary order. But if complete, this Wissenschaftslehre must be able to deduce the whole organism of cognition from certain fundamental axioms, themselves unproved and incapable of See also:proof ; only thus can we have a system of reason. From these See also:primary axioms the whole See also:body of necessary thoughts must be See also:developed, and, as See also:Socrates would say, the See also:argument itself will indicate the path of the development. Of such primitive principles, the absolutely necessary conditions of possible cognition, only three are thinkable—one perfectly unconditioned both in form and matter; a second, unconditioned in form but not in matter; a third, unconditioned in matter but not in form. Of these, evidently the first must be the fundamental; to some extent it conditions the other two, though these cannot be deduced from it or proved by it. The statement of these principles forms the introduction to Wissenschaftslehre. The method which Fichte first adopted for stating these axioms is not calculated to throw full light upon them, and tends to exaggerate the apparent airiness and unsubstantiality of his deduction. They may be explained thus. The primitive condition of all intelligence is that the ego shall posit, affirm or be aware of itself. The ego is the ego; such is the first pure See also:act of conscious intelligence, that by which alone consciousness can come to be what it is. It is what Fichte called a See also:Deed-act (Thalhandlung) ; we cannot be aware of the See also:process,—the ego is not until it has affirmed itself,—but we are aware of the result, and can see the necessity of the act by which it is brought about. The ego then posits itself as real. What the ego posits is real. But in consciousness there is equally given a primitive act of op-positing, or contra-positing, formally distinct from the act of position, but materially determined, in so far as what is op-posited must be the negative of that which was posited. The non-ego--not, be it noticed, the world as we know it—is op-posed in consciousness to the ego. The ego is not the non-ego. How this act of op-positing is possible and necessary, only becomes clear in the practical philosophy, and even there the inherent difficulty leads to a higher view. But third, we have now an absolute See also:antithesis to our See also:original thesis. Only the ego is real, but the non-ego is posited in the ego. The See also:contradiction is solved in a higher synthesis, which takes up into itself the two opposites. The ego and non-ego limit one another, or determine one another; and, as See also:limitation is negation of part of a divisible quantum, in this third act, the divisible ego is op-posed to a divisible non-ego. From this point onwards the course proceeds by the method already made clear. We progress by making explicit the oppositions contained in the fundamental synthesis, by uniting these opposites, analysing the new synthesis, and so on, until we reach an ultimate pair. Now, in the synthesis of the third act two principles may be distinguished:—(s) the non-ego determines the ego; (2) the ego determines the non-ego. As determined the ego is theoretical, as determining it is practical; ultimately the opposed principles must be See also:united by showing how the ego is both determining and determined. It is impossible. to enter here on the steps by which the theoretical ego is shown to develop into the complete system of cognitive categories, or to trace the deduction of the processes (productive See also:imagination, intuition, sensation, understanding, judgment, reason) by which the quite indefinite non-ego comes to assume the appearance of definite objects in the forms of time and space. All this evolution is the necessary consequence of the determination of the ego by the non-ego. But it is clear that the non-ego cannot really determine the ego. There is no reality beyond the ego itself. The contradiction can only be suppressed if the ego itself opposes to itself the non-ego, places it as an Anstoss or See also:plane on which its own activity breaks and from which it is reflected. Now, this op-positing of the Anstoss is the necessary condition of the practical ego, of the will. If the ego be a striving power, then of necessity a limit must be set by which its striving is See also:manifest. But how can the infinitely active ego posit a limit to its own activity? Here we come to the crux of Fichte's system, which is only partly cleared up in the Rechtslehre and Sittenlehre. If the ego be pure activity, See also:free activity, it can only become aware of itself by positing some limit. We cannot possibly have any cognition of how such an act is possible. But as it is a free act, the ego cannot be determined to it by anything beyond itself ; it cannot be aware of its own freedom otherwise than as determined by other free egos. Thus in the Rechtslehre and Sittenlehre, the multiplicity of egos is deduced, and with this deduction the first form of the Wissenschaftslehre appeared to end. (c) But in fact deeper questions remained. We have spoken of the ego as becoming aware of its own freedom, and have shown how the existence of other egos and of a world in which these egos may act are the necessary conditions of consciousness of freedom. But all this is the work of the ego. All that has been expounded follows if the ego comes to consciousness. We have therefore to consider that the absolute ego, from which spring all the individual egos, is not subject to these conditions, but freely determines itself to them. How is this absolute ego to be conceived ? As early as 1797 Fichte had begun to see that the ultimate basis of his system was the absolute ego, in which is no difference of subject and object; in i800 the Bestimmung des Menschen defined this absolute ego as the infinite moral will of the universe, God, in whom are all the individual egos, from whom they have sprung. It See also:lay in the nature of the thing that more precise utterances should be given on this subject, and these we find in the Thatsachen des Bewusstseyns and in all the later lectures. God in them is the absolute Life, the absolute One, who becomes conscious of himself by self-diremption into the individual egos. The individual ego is only possible as opposed to a non-ego, to a world of the senses; thus God, the infinite will, manifests himself in the individual, and the individual has over against him the non-ego or thing. " The individuals do not make part of the being of the one life, but are a pure form of its absolute freedom." " The individual is not conscious of himself, but the Life is conscious of itself in individual form and as an individual." In order that the Life may act, though it is not necessary that it should act, individualization is necessary. " Thus," says Fichte, " we reach a final conclusion. Knowledge is not See also:mere knowledge of itself, but of being, and of the one being that truly is, viz. God.... This one possible object of knowledge is never known in its purity, but ever broken into the various forms of knowledge which are and can be shown to be necessary. , The demonstration of the necessity of these forms is philosophy or Wissenschaftslehre " (Thats. des Bewuss. Werke, ii. 685). This ultimate view is expressed throughout the lectures (in the Nachgel. Werke) in uncouth and mystical See also:language. It will See also:escape no one (I) how the idea and method of the Wissenschaftslehre prepare the way for the later Hegelian See also:dialectic, and (2) how completely the whole philosophy of See also:Schopenhauer is contained in the later writings of Fichte. It is not to the See also:credit of historians that Schopenhauer's See also:debt should have been allowed to pass with so little notice. The number of critical works is very large. Besides the histories of post-Kantian philosophy by Erdmann, See also:Fortlage (whose account is remarkably See also:good), See also:Michelet, See also:Biedermann and others, see Wm. Busse, Fichte and See also:seine Beziehung zur Gegenwart des deutschen Volkes (Halle, 1848-1849) ; J. H. See also:Lowe, Die Philosophie Fichtes (See also:Stuttgart, 1862) ; Kuno Fischer, Geschichte d. neueren Philosophie (1869, 1884, 189o) ; See also:Ludwig Noack, Fichte each seinem Leben, Lehren and Wirken (Leipzig, 1862) ; R. See also:Adamson, Fichte (1881, in See also:Knight's " Philosophical See also:Classics ") ; Oscar Benzow, Zu Fichtes Lehre von Nicht-Ich (See also:Bern, 1898); E. O. See also:Burmann, Die Transcendental philosophic Fichtes and Schellings (See also:Upsala, 189o-1892) ; M. Corriere, Fichtes Geistesentwickelung in die Reden fiber d. Bestimmung des Gelehrten (1894) ; C. C. See also:Everett, Fichte's Science of Knowledge (See also:Chicago, 1884) ; O. See also:Pfleiderer, J. G. Fichtes Lebensbild eines deutschen Denkers and Patrioten (Stuttgart, 1877) ; T. Wotschke, Fichte and See also:Erigena (1896); W. Kabitz, Studien zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der Fichte-'--See also:hen Wissenschaftslehre aus der Kantischen Philosophie (1902); E. Lask, Fichtes Idealismus and die Geschichte (1902) ; X. See also:Leon, La Philos. de Fichte (1902); M. Wiener, J. G. Fichtes Lehre vom Wesen and Inhalt der Geschichte (1906). On Fichte's social philosophy see, e.g., F. See also:Schmidt-Warneck, Die Sociologie Fichtes (Berlin, 1884) ; W. Windelband, Fichtes Idee des deutschen Staates (189o) ; M. See also:Weber, Fichtes Sozialismus and sein Verhaltnis zur See also:Marx'schen Doctrin (1900) ; S. H. Gutman, J. G. Fichtes Sozialpadogogik (1907) ; H. See also:Lindau, Johann G. Fichte and der neuere Socialismus (1900). (R. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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