FICHTE, JOHANN GOTTLIEB

FICHTE, JOHANN GOTTLIEB (1762–1814), German philosopher.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte is best known for his lifelong effort to develop a comprehensive system of transcendental idealism under the general name Wissenschaftslehre or "Theory of Scientific Knowledge," which would be true to the "spirit" if not to the letter of Kantianism. Fichte is also known for his popular lectures and writings on philosophy of history, education, and religion, including his controversial Addresses to the German Nation.

Fichte was born in very humble circumstances in Saxony and educated in Jena and Leipzig. His first encounter with Immanuel Kant's Critiques was enough to persuade him to devote the rest of his life, first of all, to popularizing the salubrious consequences of transcendental idealism, and secondly to the systematic reformulation of the same upon a more secure foundation. His first book, Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation (1792), which appeared without his name and was mistakenly attributed to Kant, immediately established his reputation, on the basis of which he obtained a professorship at the University of Jena (1794–1799). His public defense of the principles of the French Revolution earned him a reputation as a political radical.

In Jena, Fichte set out the basic principles of his new "System of Human Freedom" in his lectures and books, Foundations of the Entire Wissenschaftslehre (1794–1795) and Outline of Distinctive Character of the Wissenschaftslehre with Respect to the Theoretical Faculty (1795). In this "foundational" portion of his system, he showed how "theoretical" consciousness of the I and its objects presupposes and is made possible by "practical" striving and willing, thereby installing at the heart of his new system "the primacy of the practical." This was accomplished by limiting the realm of transcendental philosophy to that of analyzing the structure of pure subjectivity itself, the realm of the autonomous or "absolutely self-positing" I.

During this period Fichte also developed, in his Foundations of Natural Right (1796–1797), a highly original political theory or philosophy of law, stressing the independence of the latter from morality and including a "deduction" of intersubjectivity as a condition for self-consciousness. His most accomplished work during the Jena period was his System of Ethics (1798), in which he reformulated the foundations of his system and tried to replace Kant's merely "formal" ethics with a real or material theory of morals, which stresses the constitutive role of moral consciousness ("conscience") as a condition for self-consciousness as such.

In 1799 Fichte was charged with atheism on the basis of his apparent identification of God with the "moral world order" (in his essay "On the Basis of our Belief in Divine Governance of the World" [1798]) and subsequently lost his position at Jena. He then moved to Berlin, where he spent most of the rest of his life. At first he supported himself as a freelance author and lecturer. In works such as The Vocation of Man (1800), Characteristics of the Present Age (1806), The Way toward the Blessed Life (1806), and Addresses to the German Nation (1808) he tried to present the standpoint of the Wissenschaftslehre in a broadly "popular" and accessible manner and to apply the same to the pressing historical, moral, educational, and political needs of his own time—including the immediate need for spiritual rejuvenation and heightened self-awareness on the part of the "German nation" that had been humiliated by Napoleon. When the University of Berlin was established in 1810, Fichte became dean of the philosophy faculty and then rector of the university, as well as professor of philosophy.

At the same time Fichte was trying to engage with the events and needs of his era, he was also busy developing and revising the theoretical foundations of his Wissenschaftslehre—a process he began in Jena, with his lectures on Wissenschaftslehre nova methodo (1796–1799) and continued in Berlin and elsewhere. In all, he produced at least fifteen radically different presentations of the Wissenschaftslehre, only the first of which was published during his own lifetime. Some of the later versions were included in the edition of Fichte's Works published by his son in the mid-nineteenth century, but it is only in recent decades that some of the later versions of the Wissenschaftslehre have become available in the new critical edition of his Works published under the auspices of the Bavarian Academy of the Sciences.

Fichte's influence during his own lifetime was immense and was not limited to his well-known philosophical influence upon Friedrich von Schelling and Friedrich Hegel. They both learned from his philosophy (from, for example, his pioneering development of the "dialectical method") and ultimately rejected the same as "subjective idealism." He also had a direct influence upon the first generation of German Romantic authors, including Friedrich Schlegel and Novalis, and his Addresses played a controversial role in the subsequent development of German nationalism. Since the later versions of his system were not published until long after his death, the "reception" of Fichte's philosophy is a process that continues into the early twenty-first century.

See alsoHegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich; Novalis (Hardenberg, Friedrich von); Schelling, Friedrich von.

bibliography

Breazeale, Daniel, ed. and trans. Fichte: Early Philosophical Writings. Ithaca, N.Y., 1988.

——. Foundations of Transcendental Philosophy (Wissenschaftslehre) nova methodo (1796/99). Ithaca, N.Y., 1992.

——. Introductions to the Wissenschaftslehre and Other Writings, 1797–1800. Indianapolis, 1994.

——. The Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte. 2 vols. Bristol, U.K., 1999.

Breazeale, Daniel, and Günter Zöller, eds. and trans. System of Ethics. Cambridge, U.K., 2005.

Heath, Peter, and John Lachs. Science of Knowledge. Cambridge, U.K., 1982.

Neuhouser, Frederick, ed. Foundations of Natural Right: According to the Principles of Wissenschaftslehre. Translated by Michael Baur. Cambridge, U.K., 2005.

Wright, Walter E., ed. and trans. The Science of Knowing: J. G. Fichte's 1804 Lectures on the Wissenschaftslehre. Albany, N.Y., 2005.

Daniel Breazeale