Single Idea 22016

[catalogued under 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 Reference

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?