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Full Idea
Not by any law of nature do we attain to reason; we achieve it by absolute freedom. ...In philosophy, therefore, we must necessarily start from the self. The materialists' project of deriving the appearance of reason from natural laws is impossible.
Gist of Idea
Reason arises from freedom, so philosophy starts from the self, and not from the laws of nature
Source
Johann Fichte (works [1798], I:298), quoted by A.W. Moore - The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics
Book Ref
Moore,A.W.: 'The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics' [CUP 2013], p.149
A Reaction
I blame Descartes' Cogito for this misunderstanding. The underlying idea (in Kant, and probably earlier) is that pure reason needs pure free will. Modern thought usually sees reason as extremely impure.
| 6912 | For Fichte there is no God outside the ego, and 'our religion is reason' [Fichte, by Feuerbach] |
| 21973 | Fichte believed in things-in-themselves [Fichte, by Moore,AW] |
| 20951 | The absolute I divides into consciousness, and a world which is not-I [Fichte, by Bowie] |
| 21914 | We can deduce experience from self-consciousness, without the thing-in-itself [Fichte] |
| 21964 | Reason arises from freedom, so philosophy starts from the self, and not from the laws of nature [Fichte] |
| 21968 | Abandon the thing-in-itself; things only exist in relation to our thinking [Fichte] |
| 21970 | Philosophy attains its goal if one person feels perfect accord between their system and experience [Fichte] |
| 21965 | Spinoza could not actually believe his determinism, because living requires free will [Fichte] |