Filosofia lui Fichte in engleza

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Johann Gottlieb Fichte, (born May 19, 1762, Rammenau, Upper Lusatia,
Saxony [now in Germany]died Jan. 27, 1814, Berlin), German philosopher and
patriot, one of the great transcendental idealists.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte, lithograph by F.A. Zimmermann after a painting by H.A. Daehling.
Deutsche Fotothek, Dresden, Ger.

Early Life And Career

Fichte was the son of a ribbon weaver. Educated at the Pforta school (1774
80) and at the universities of Jena (1780) and of Leipzig (178184), he started work
as a tutor. In this capacity he went to Zrich in 1788 and to Warsaw in 1791 but left
after two weeks probation.
The major influence on his thought at this time was that of Immanuel Kant,
whose doctrine of the inherent moralworth of man harmonized with Fichtes

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character; and he resolved to devote himself to perfecting a true philosophy, the
principles of which should be practical maxims. He went from Warsaw to see Kant
himself at Knigsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), but this first interview was
disappointing. Later, when Fichte submitted his Versuch einer Kritik aller
Offenbarung (An Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation) to Kant, the latter was
favourably impressed by it and helped find a publisher (1792). Fichtes name and
preface were accidentally omitted from the first edition, and the work was ascribed
by its earliest readers to Kant himself; when Kant corrected the mistake while
commending the essay, Fichtes reputation was made.
In the Versuch, Fichte sought to explain the conditions under which
revealed religion is possible; his exposition turns upon the absolute requirements of
the moral law. Religion itself is the belief in this moral law as divine, and such
belief is a practical postulate, necessary in order to add force to the law. The
revelation of this divine character of morality is possible only to someone in whom
the lower impulses have been, or are, successful in overcoming reverence for the
law. In such a 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 satisfies the needs of man, insofar as he stands under the moral
law. In this conclusion are evident the prominence assigned by Fichte to the
practical element and the tendency to make the moral requirements of the ego the
ground for all judgment on reality.
In 1793 Fichte married Johanna Maria Rahn, whom he had met during his
stay in Zrich. In the same year, he published anonymously two remarkable
political works, of which Beitrag zur Berichtigung der Urteile des Publikums ber
die franzsische Revolution (Contribution to the Correction of the Publics
Judgments Regarding the French Revolution) was the more important. It was
intended to explain the true nature of the French Revolution, to demonstrate how
inextricably the right of liberty is interwoven with the very existence of man as an
intelligent agent, and to point out the inherent progressiveness of the state and the
consequent necessity of reform or amendment. As in the Versuch, the rational

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 nature of man and the conditions necessary for its realization are made the standard
for political philosophy.

The philosophy of Fichte falls chronologically into a period of residence in

Jena (179398) and a period in Berlin (17991806), which are also different in
their fundamental philosophic conceptions. The former period is marked by
its ethicalemphasis, the latter by the emergence of a mystical and theological theory
of Being. Fichte was prompted to change his original position because he came to
appreciate that religious faith surpasses moral reason. He was also influenced by
the general trend that the development of thought took toward Romanticism.

Years At The University Of Jena.

In 1793 there was a vacant chair of philosophy at the University of Jena, and
Fichte was called to fill it. To the ensuing period belongs his most important
philosophical work. In this period he published, among other works: Einige
Vorlesungen ber die Bestimmung des Gelehrten (1794; The Vocation of the
Scholar), lectures on the importance of the highest intellectual culture and on the
duties that it imposed; several works on the science of knowledge
(Wissenschaftslehre), which were revised and developed continually throughout his
life; the practical Grundlage des Naturrechts nach Prinzipien der
Wissenschaftslehre (1796; The Science of Rights); and Das System der Sittenlehre
nach den Prinzipien der Wissenschaftslehre (1798; The Science of Ethics as Based
on the Science of Knowledge), in which his moral philosophy, grounded in the
notion of duty, is most notably expressed.

The system of 1794 was the most original and also the most characteristic
work that Fichte produced. It was incited by Kants critical philosophy and
especially by his Kritik der praktischen Vernunft (1788; Critique of Practical

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Reason . . .). From the outset it was less critical, precisely because it was more
systematic, aiming at a self-sufficient doctrine in which the science of knowledge
and ethics were intimately united. Fichtes ambition was to demonstrate that
practical (moral) reason is really (as Kant had only intimated) the root of reason in
its entirety, the absolute ground of all knowledge as well as of humanity altogether.
To prove this, he started from a supreme principle, the ego, which was supposed to
be independent and sovereign, so that all other knowledge was deduced from it.
Fichte did not assert that this supreme principle was self-evident but rather that it
had to be postulated by pure thought. He followed, thereby, Kants doctrine that
pure, practical reason postulates the existence of God, but he tried to transform
Kants rational faith into a speculative knowledge on which he based both his
theory of science and his ethics.
In 1795 Fichte became one of the editors of the Philosophisches Journal, and
in 1798 his friend F.K. Forberg, a young, unknown philosopher, sent him an essay
on the development of the idea of religion. Before printing this, Fichte, to prevent
misunderstanding, composed a short preface, On the Grounds of Our Belief in a
Divine Government of the Universe, in which God is defined as the moral order of
the universe, the eternal law of right that is the foundation of all mans being. The
cry of atheism was raised, and the electoral government of Saxony, followed by all
of the German states except Prussia, suppressed the Journal and demanded Fichtes
expulsion from Jena. After publishing two defenses, Fichte threatened to resign in
case of reprimand. Much to his discomfort, his threat was taken as an offer to
resign and was duly accepted.

Years In Berlin
Except for the summer of 1805, Fichte resided in Berlin from 1799 to 1806.
Among his friends were the leaders of German Romanticism, A.W. and F. Schlegel
and Friedrich Schleiermacher. His works of this period include Die Bestimmung
des Menschen (1800; The Vocation of Man), in which he defines God as
the infinite moral will of the universe who becomes conscious of himself in

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individuals; Der geschlossene Handelsstaat (also 1800), an intensely
socialistic treatise in favour of tariff protection; two new versions of
the Wissenschaftslehre (composed in 1801 and in 1804; published posthumously),
marking a great change in the character of the doctrine; Die Grundzge des
gegenwrtigen Zeitalters (1806; lectures delivered 180405; The Characteristics of
the Present Age), analyzing the Enlightenment and defining its place in the
historical evolution of the general human consciousness but also indicating its
defects and looking forward to belief in the divine order of the universe as the
highest aspect of the life of reason; and Die Anweisung zum seligen Leben, oder
auch die Religionslehre (1806; The Way Towards the Blessed Life). In this last-
named work the union between the finite self-consciousness and the infinite ego, or
God, is handled in a deeply religious fashion reminiscent of the Gospel According
to John. The knowledge and love of God is declared to be the end of life. God is the
All; the world of 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; mans knowledge is but a reflex or picture of
the infinite essence.

Last Years
The French victories over the Prussians in 1806 drove Fichte from Berlin to
Knigsberg (where he lectured for a time), then to Copenhagen. He returned to
Berlin in August 1807. From this time his published writings were practical in
character; not until after the appearance of the Nachgelassene Werke (Posthumous
Works) and of the Smmtliche Werke (Complete Works) was the shape of his
final speculations known. In 1807 he drew up a plan for the proposed
new University of Berlin. In 180708 he delivered at Berlin his Reden an die
deutsche Nation (Addresses to the German Nation), full of practical views on the
only true foundation for national recovery and glory. From 1810 to 1812 he was
rector of the new University of Berlin. During the great effort of Germany for

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national independence in 1813, he lectured ber den Begriff des wahrhaften
Krieges (On the Idea of a True War).
At the beginning of 1814, Fichte caught a virulent hospital fever from his
wife, who had volunteered for work as a hospital nurse; he died shortly thereafter.