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Single Idea 22016

[filed under theme 16. Persons / B. Nature of the Self / 4. Presupposition of Self ]

Full Idea

Fichte said the self is not a natural 'thing' but is itself a normative status, and 'it' can obtain this status, so it seems, only by an act of attributing it to itself. ...He continually identified the 'I' with 'reason' itself.

Clarification

'Normative' means rule-giving

Gist of Idea

The self is not a 'thing', but what emerges from an assertion of normativity

Source

report of Johann Fichte (The Science of Knowing (Wissenschaftslehre) [1st ed] [1794]) by Terry Pinkard - German Philosophy 1760-1860 05

Book Ref

Pinkard,Terry: 'German Philosophy 1760-1860' [CUP 2002], p.114

A Reaction

Pinkard says Fichte gradually qualified this claim. Fichte struggled to state his view in a way that avoided obvious paradoxes. 'My mind produces decisions, so there must be someone in charge of them'? Is this transcendental?

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]
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]
22064 Fichte's logic is much too narrow, and doesn't deduce ethics, art, society or life [Schlegel,F on Fichte]
22018 Necessary truths derive from basic assertion and negation [Fichte, by Pinkard]
22032 Fichte's key claim was that the subjective-objective distinction must itself be subjective [Fichte, by Pinkard]
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]
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]
23237 The capacity for freedom is above the laws of nature, with its own power of purpose and will [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]
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]
23233 The will is awareness of one of our inner natural forces [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]
23235 I want independent control of the fundamental cause of my decisions [Fichte]
23230 Nature contains a fundamental force of thought [Fichte]
23242 Consciousness has two parts, passively receiving sensation, and actively causing productions [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]
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]
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]
23245 Knowledge can't be its own foundation; there has to be regress of higher and higher authorities [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]
6912 For Fichte there is no God outside the ego, and 'our religion is reason' [Fichte, by Feuerbach]
20951 The absolute I divides into consciousness, and a world which is not-I [Fichte, by Bowie]
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]