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Single Idea 21964

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

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.

The 48 ideas from Johann Fichte

22015 The thing-in-itself is an empty dream [Fichte, by Pinkard]
22062 Mental presentation are not empirical, but concern the strivings of the self [Fichte]
22018 Necessary truths derive from basic assertion and negation [Fichte, by Pinkard]
22064 Fichte's logic is much too narrow, and doesn't deduce ethics, art, society or life [Schlegel,F on Fichte]
22024 Fichte's subjectivity struggles to then give any account of objectivity [Pinkard on Fichte]
22017 Normativity needs the possibility of negation, in affirmation and denial [Fichte, by Pinkard]
22032 Fichte's key claim was that the subjective-objective distinction must itself be subjective [Fichte, by Pinkard]
22060 The Self is the spontaneity, self-relatedness and unity needed for knowledge [Fichte, by Siep]
22066 Novalis sought a much wider concept of the ego than Fichte's proposal [Novalis on Fichte]
22016 The self is not a 'thing', but what emerges from an assertion of normativity [Fichte, by Pinkard]
22061 Judgement is distinguishing concepts, and seeing their relations [Fichte, by Siep]
22023 Fichte's idea of spontaneity implied that nothing counts unless we give it status [Fichte, by Pinkard]
22065 Fichte reduces nature to a lifeless immobility [Schlegel,F on Fichte]
22019 Consciousness of an object always entails awareness of the self [Fichte]
22020 We only see ourselves as self-conscious and rational in relation to other rationalities [Fichte]
22063 Effective individuals must posit a specific material body for themselves [Fichte]
23231 I immediately know myself, and anything beyond that is an inference [Fichte]
23227 Each object has a precise number of properties, each to a precise degree [Fichte]
23228 The principle of activity and generation is found in a self-moving basic force [Fichte]
23232 Sufficient reason makes the transition from the particular to the general [Fichte]
23233 The will is awareness of one of our inner natural forces [Fichte]
23236 Freedom means making yourself become true to your essential nature [Fichte]
23229 Nature is wholly interconnected, and the tiniest change affects everything [Fichte]
23237 The capacity for freedom is above the laws of nature, with its own power of purpose and will [Fichte]
23235 I want independent control of the fundamental cause of my decisions [Fichte]
23230 Nature contains a fundamental force of thought [Fichte]
23234 I cannot change the nature which has been determined for me [Fichte]
23239 The self is, apart from outward behaviour, a drive in your nature [Fichte]
23238 If life lacks love it becomes destruction [Fichte]
23240 We can't know by sight or hearing without realising that we are doing so [Fichte]
23241 I am myself, but not the external object; so I only sense myself, and not the object [Fichte]
23242 Consciousness has two parts, passively receiving sensation, and actively causing productions [Fichte]
23243 Consciousness of external things is always accompanied by an unnoticed consciousness of self [Fichte]
23244 Forming purposes is absolutely free, and produces something from nothing [Fichte]
23245 Knowledge can't be its own foundation; there has to be regress of higher and higher authorities [Fichte]
23246 Faith is not knowledge; it is a decision of the will [Fichte]
23247 The need to act produces consciousness, and practical reason is the root of all reason [Fichte]
21966 Self-consciousness is the basis of knowledge, and knowing something is knowing myself [Fichte]
21967 There is nothing to say about anything which is outside my consciousness [Fichte]
21969 Awareness of reality comes from the free activity of consciousness [Fichte]
20951 The absolute I divides into consciousness, and a world which is not-I [Fichte, by Bowie]
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]
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]