display all the ideas for this combination of texts
1 idea
23245 | Knowledge can't be its own foundation; there has to be regress of higher and higher authorities [Fichte] |
Full Idea: No knowledge can be its own foundation and proof. Every knowledge presupposes something still higher as its foundation, and this ascent has no end. | |
From: Johann Fichte (The Vocation of Man [1800], 3.I) | |
A reaction: A metaphor that's hard to visualise! He must have in mind a priori as well as empirical knowledge. The 'higher' levels don't seem to be God, but some region of absolute rationality, to which free minds have access. I think. |