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Single Idea 23236

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 6. Authentic Self ]

Full Idea

I want to be free means: I myself want to make myself be whatever I will be. I would therefore …already have to be, in a certain sense, what I am to become, so that I could make myself be it.

Gist of Idea

Freedom means making yourself become true to your essential nature

Source

Johann Fichte (The Vocation of Man [1800], 1)

Book Ref

Fichte,Johann G.: 'The Vocation of Man', ed/tr. Preuss,Peter [Hackett 1987], p.22

A Reaction

This is much closer to the existenial picture of the malleable self, which Fichte arrives out once he commits to his desperate desire to have free will. [Not sure if my gist captures what he says].

Related Ideas

Idea 23234 I cannot change the nature which has been determined for me [Fichte]

Idea 23235 I want independent control of the fundamental cause of my decisions [Fichte]

The 24 ideas from 'The Vocation of Man'

23232 Sufficient reason makes the transition from the particular to the general [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]
23233 The will is awareness of one of our inner natural forces [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]
23236 Freedom means making yourself become true to your essential nature [Fichte]
23229 Nature is wholly interconnected, and the tiniest change affects everything [Fichte]
23231 I immediately know myself, and anything beyond that is an inference [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]
23241 I am myself, but not the external object; so I only sense myself, and not the object [Fichte]
23240 We can't know by sight or hearing without realising that we are doing so [Fichte]
23246 Faith is not knowledge; it is a decision of the will [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]
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]