Johann Gottlieb Fichte (19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher, and a founding figure of German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant.
Fichte is an important philosopher in his own right due to his original insights into the nature of self-consciousness or self-awareness. Fichte was also the originator of thesis–antithesis–synthesis,"Review of Aenesidemus" ("Rezension des Aenesidemus", Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, 11–12 February 1794). Trans. Daniel Breazeale. In (See also: FTP, p. 46; Breazeale 1980–81, pp. 545–68; Breazeale and Rockmore 1994, p. 19; Breazeale 2013, pp. 36–37; Waibel, Breazeale, Rockmore 2010, p. 157: "Fichte believes that the I must be grasped as the unity of synthesis and analysis.") an idea that is often erroneously attributed to Hegel.Robert C. Solomon, In the Spirit of Hegel, Oxford University Press, p. 23.
Like Descartes and Kant before him, Fichte was motivated by the problem of subjectivity and consciousness. Fichte also wrote works of political philosophy; he has a reputation as one of the fathers of German nationalism.
Biography Origins Fichte was born in Rammenau, Upper Lusatia, and baptized a Lutheran. The son of a ribbon weaver, Fichte was born into a pious family that had lived in the region for generations. Christian Fichte (1737–1812), Johann Gottlieb's father, married Maria Dorothea Fichte, née Schurich (1739–1813) somewhat above his class. It has been suggested that a certain impatience which Fichte himself displayed throughout his life was an inheritance from his mother.
He received a rudimentary education from his father. He showed remarkable ability from an early age, and it was owing to his reputation among the villagers that he gained the opportunity for a better education than he otherwise would have received. The story runs that the Freiherr von Miltitz, a country landowner, arrived too late to hear the local pastor preach. He was, however, informed that a lad in the neighborhood would be able to repeat the sermon almost verbatim. As a result, the baron took Fichte into his protection and paid for his tuition.
Early schooling Fichte was placed in the family of Pastor Krebel at Niederau near Meissen, and there received a thorough grounding in the classics. From this time onward, Fichte saw little of his parents. In October 1774, he attended the celebrated foundation-school at Pforta near Naumburg. Freiherr von Miltitz continued to support him, but died in 1774. The Pforta school is associated with the names of Novalis, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Friedrich Schlegel, and Nietzsche. The spirit of the institution was semi-monastic and, while the education was excellent, it is doubtful whether there was enough social life and contact with the world for Fichte.
Theological studies and private tutoring In 1780, Fichte began study at the University of Jena's Lutheran theology seminary. He was transferred a year later to study at the Leipzig University. Fichte seems to have supported himself during this period of poverty and struggle. Without the financial support by von Miltitz, Fichte had to end his studies without completing his degree.
From 1784 to 1788, Fichte precariously supported himself as tutor for various Saxon families. In early 1788, he returned to Leipzig in the hope of finding a better employment, but eventually he had to settle for a less promising position with the family of an innkeeper in Zürich.Anthony J. La Vopa, Fichte: The Self and the Calling of Philosophy, 1762-1799, Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 26. He lived in Zürich for the next two years (1788–1790), where he met his future wife, Johanna Rahn,She was the niece of the famous poet F. G. Klopstock. and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. He also became, in 1793, a member of the Freemasonry lodge "Modestia cum Libertate", with which Johann Wolfgang Goethe was also connected.Imhof, Gottlieb (1959). Kleine Werklehre der Freimaurerei. I. Das Buch des Lehrlings. 5th ed. Lausanne: Alpina, p. 42.Lawatsch, Hans-Helmut (1991). "Fichte und die hermetische Demokratie der Freimaurer." In: Hammacher, Klaus, Schottky, Richard, Schrader, Wolfgang H. and Daniel Breazeale (eds.). Sozialphilosophie. Fichte-Studien, Vol. 3. Amsterdam-Atlanta: Editions Rodopi, p. 204, . In the spring of 1790, he became engaged to Johanna.Anthony J. La Vopa, Fichte: The Self and the Calling of Philosophy, 1762-1799, Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 151. Fichte began to study the works of Kant in the summer of 1790. This occurred initially because one of Fichte's students wanted to know about Kant's writings. They had a lasting effect on his life and thought. However, while Fichte was studying Kantian philosophy, the Rahn family suffered financial setbacks. His impending marriage had to be postponed.
Kant From Zürich, Fichte returned to Leipzig in May 1790. In early 1791, he obtained a tutorship in Warsaw in the house of a Polish nobleman. The situation, however, quickly proved disagreeable and he was released. He then got a chance to see Kant in Königsberg. After a disappointing interview on 4 July of the same year, he shut himself in his lodgings and threw all his energies into the composition of an essay which would attract Kant's attention and interest. This essay, completed in five weeks, was the Versuch einer Critik aller Offenbarung (Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation, 1792). In this book, according to Dieter Henrich, Fichte investigated the connections between divine revelation and Kant's critical philosophy. The first edition was published without Kant's or Fichte's knowledge and without Fichte's name or signed preface. It was thus believed by the public to be a new work by Kant.It is unknown if the omission was an accident or a deliberate attempt by the publisher to sell copies. In either case, Fichte had not planned it and only heard about it much later. He wrote to his fiancée: "Why did I have to have such utterly strange, excellent, unheard-of good luck?" See Garrett Green's Introduction to Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
When Kant cleared the confusion and openly praised the work and author, Fichte's reputation skyrocketed. In a letter to Karl Leonhard Reinhold, Jens Baggesen wrote that it was "...the most shocking and astonishing news... [since] nobody but Kant could have written this book. This amazing news of a third sun in the philosophical heavens has set me into such confusion."Editor’s Introduction to *Fichte, Early Philosophical Writings* (Cornell, 1988), quoted in the article. Kant waited seven years to make a public statement about the incident; after considerable external pressure he dissociated himself from Fichte. In his statement, he inscribed, "May God protect us from our friends. From our enemies, we can try to protect ourselves."Popper, Karl. "The Open Society and Its Enemies." Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. Vol 2, p. 266.
Jena In October 1793, Fichte was married in Zürich, where he remained the rest of the year. Stirred by the events and principles of the French Revolution, he wrote and anonymously published two pamphlets which led to him to be seen as a devoted defender of liberty of thought and action and an advocate of political changes. In December of the same year, he received an invitation to fill the position of extraordinary professor of philosophy at the University of Jena.On the role of Freemasonry in Fichte's call to Jena, see Klaus Hammacher, Fichte und die Freimaurerei', in Fichte-Studien 2/1990, pp. 138–159; Hans-Helmut Lawatsch, Fichte und die hermetische Demokratie der Freimaurei', in Fichte-Studien, 3/1991, pp. 204–218. As quoted in Marco Rampazzo Bazzan, Il prisma "Rousseau". Lo sguardo di Fichte sulla politica tra Staatsrecht e Rivoluzione francese. Franco Angeli Edizioni, 2017, p. 38, ISBN 9788891757531 He accepted and began his lectures in May 1794. With extraordinary zeal, he expounded his system of "transcendental idealism". His success was immediate. He excelled as a lecturer due to the earnestness and force of his personality. These lectures were later published under the title The Vocation of the Scholar (Einige Vorlesungen über die Bestimmung des Gelehrten). He gave himself up to intense production, and a succession of works soon appeared.
Atheism dispute
Fichte was dismissed from the University of Jena in 1799 for atheism. He had been accused of this in 1798 after publishing the essay "Ueber den Grund unsers Glaubens an eine göttliche Weltregierung" ("On the Ground of Our Belief in a Divine World-Governance"), written in response to Friedrich Karl Forberg's essay "Development of the Concept of Religion", in his Philosophical Journal. For Fichte, God should be conceived primarily in moral terms: "The living and efficaciously acting moral order is itself God. We require no other God, nor can we grasp any other" ("On the Ground of Our Belief in a Divine World-Governance"). Fichte's intemperate "Appeal to the Public" ("Appellation an das Publikum", 1799) provoked F. H. Jacobi to publish an open letter in which he equated philosophy in general and Fichte's transcendental philosophy in particular with nihilism.
Berlin Since all the German states except Prussia had joined in the cry against Fichte, he was forced to go to Berlin. There he associated himself with Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel, Schleiermacher, Schelling, and Tieck. In April 1800, through the introduction of Hungarian writer Ignaz Aurelius Fessler, he was initiated into Freemasonry in the Lodge Pythagoras of the Blazing Star, where he was elected minor warden. At first Fichte was a warm admirer of Fessler, and was disposed to aid him in his proposed Masonic reform. But later he became Fessler's bitter opponent. Their controversy attracted much attention among Freemasons. Fichte presented two lectures on the philosophy of Masonry during the same period as part of his work on the development of various higher degrees for the lodge in Berlin.Glenn Alexander Magee, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition, Cornell University Press, 2008, p. 55. Johann Karl Christian Fischer, a high official of the Grand Orient, published those lectures in 1802/03 in two volumes under the title Philosophy of Freemasonry: Letters to Konstant (Philosophie der Maurerei. Briefe an Konstant), where "Konstant" referred to a fictitious non-Mason.
In November 1800, Fichte published The Closed Commercial State: A Philosophical Sketch as an Appendix to the Doctrine of Right and an Example of a Future Politics (Der geschlossene Handelsstaat. Ein philosophischer Entwurf als Anhang zur Rechtslehre und Probe einer künftig zu liefernden Politik), a philosophical statement of his property theory, a historical analysis of European economic relations, and a political proposal for reforming them.Isaac Nakhimovsky, The Closed Commercial State: Perpetual Peace and Commercial Society from Rousseau to Fichte, Princeton University Press, 2011, p. 6. In 1805, he was appointed to a professorship at the University of Erlangen. The Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in 1806, in which Napoleon defeated the Prussian army, drove him to Königsberg for a time, but he returned to Berlin in 1807 and continued his literary activity.
Fichte wrote On Machiavelli, as an Author, and Passages from His Writings in June 1807. ("Über Machiavell, als Schriftsteller, und Stellen aus seinen Schriften" ). Karl Clausewitz wrote a Letter to Fichte (1809) about his book on Machiavelli.