green numbers give full details.     |    back to list of philosophers     |     expand these ideas

Ideas of Johann Fichte, by Text

[German, 1762 - 1814, Born Leipzig. Taught at the University of Jena. In 1810 the first Professor of Philosophy at the new University of Berlin.]

1792 Review of 'Aenesidemus'
p.107 The thing-in-itself is an empty dream [Pinkard]
Wks I:22 p.62 Mental presentation are not empirical, but concern the strivings of the self
1794 The Science of Knowing (Wissenschaftslehre) [1st ed]
p.58 The Self is the spontaneity, self-relatedness and unity needed for knowledge [Siep]
p.59 Judgement is distinguishing concepts, and seeing their relations [Siep]
p.71 Fichte's logic is much too narrow, and doesn't deduce ethics, art, society or life [Schlegel,F]
p.72 Novalis sought a much wider concept of the ego than Fichte's proposal [Novalis]
p.72 Fichte reduces nature to a lifeless immobility [Schlegel,F]
p.114 The self is not a 'thing', but what emerges from an assertion of normativity [Pinkard]
p.115 Normativity needs the possibility of negation, in affirmation and denial [Pinkard]
p.116 Necessary truths derive from basic assertion and negation [Pinkard]
p.134 Fichte's idea of spontaneity implied that nothing counts unless we give it status [Pinkard]
p.142 Fichte's subjectivity struggles to then give any account of objectivity [Pinkard]
p.219 Fichte's key claim was that the subjective-objective distinction must itself be subjective [Pinkard]
p.112 p.119 Consciousness of an object always entails awareness of the self
p.8 p.119 We only see ourselves as self-conscious and rational in relation to other rationalities
1797 The Science of Rights
p.87 p.64 Effective individuals must posit a specific material body for themselves
1798 works
p.29 For Fichte there is no God outside the ego, and 'our religion is reason' [Feuerbach]
p.69 The absolute I divides into consciousness, and a world which is not-I [Bowie]
p.165 Fichte believed in things-in-themselves [Moore,AW]
I p.425 p.64 We can deduce experience from self-consciousness, without the thing-in-itself
I:298 p.149 Reason arises from freedom, so philosophy starts from the self, and not from the laws of nature
I:501 p.154 Abandon the thing-in-itself; things only exist in relation to our thinking
I:512 p.159 Philosophy attains its goal if one person feels perfect accord between their system and experience
I:513 p.149 Spinoza could not actually believe his determinism, because living requires free will
1800 The Vocation of Man
1 p.5 Each object has a precise number of properties, each to a precise degree
1 p.8 The principle of activity and generation is found in a self-moving basic force
1 p.10 Nature is wholly interconnected, and the tiniest change affects everything
1 p.12 Nature contains a fundamental force of thought
1 p.14 I immediately know myself, and anything beyond that is an inference
1 p.16 Sufficient reason makes the transition from the particular to the general
1 p.17 The will is awareness of one of our inner natural forces
1 p.19 I cannot change the nature which has been determined for me
1 p.21 I want independent control of the fundamental cause of my decisions
1 p.22 Freedom means making yourself become true to your essential nature
1 p.23 The capacity for freedom is above the laws of nature, with its own power of purpose and will
1 p.24 If life lacks love it becomes destruction
1 p.25 The self is, apart from outward behaviour, a drive in your nature
2 p.29 We can't know by sight or hearing without realising that we are doing so
2 p.31 I am myself, but not the external object; so I only sense myself, and not the object
2 p.44 Consciousness has two parts, passively receiving sensation, and actively causing productions
2 p.53 Consciousness of external things is always accompanied by an unnoticed consciousness of self
3.I p.69 Forming purposes is absolutely free, and produces something from nothing
3.I p.71 Faith is not knowledge; it is a decision of the will
3.I p.71 Knowledge can't be its own foundation; there has to be regress of higher and higher authorities
3.I p.79 The need to act produces consciousness, and practical reason is the root of all reason
p.37 p.150 Self-consciousness is the basis of knowledge, and knowing something is knowing myself
p.74 p.154 There is nothing to say about anything which is outside my consciousness
p.98 p.157 Awareness of reality comes from the free activity of consciousness