Single Idea 20951

[catalogued under 11. Knowledge Aims / C. Knowing Reality / 3. Idealism / d. Absolute idealism]

Full Idea

Fichte's very influential idea is that the subject becomes divided against itself. The absolute I splits into an I (consciousness) and a not-I (the objective world) that are relative to each other.

Gist of Idea

The absolute I divides into consciousness, and a world which is not-I

Source

report of Johann Fichte (works [1798]) by Andrew Bowie - Introduction to German Philosophy 3 'Fichtean'

Book Reference

Bowie,Andrew: 'Introduction to German Philosophy' [Polity 2003], p.69


A Reaction

This is German Idealism in action. Is there a before and after the split here? I can't make much sense of this idea. It is said that babies spend a while deciding which bits are them and which aren't. There is more to the world than 'not-I'.

Related Idea

Idea 20950 German Idealism says our thinking and nature have the same rational structure [Bowie]