Isaac Nakhimovsky
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148946
- eISBN:
- 9781400838752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148946.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter recounts how Fichte's theory of the state was profoundly shaped by his encounter with Rousseau, Sieyès, and Kant. Fichte developed a more radical version of the constitutional theory ...
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This chapter recounts how Fichte's theory of the state was profoundly shaped by his encounter with Rousseau, Sieyès, and Kant. Fichte developed a more radical version of the constitutional theory that had been advanced by Sieyès and Kant during the French Revolution, one that sought to improve upon Rousseau's description of constitutional government and to institutionalize his account of popular sovereignty. According to his many German admirers, it was Sieyès, and not his Jacobin opponents, who was the real inheritor of Rousseau, because the kind of egalitarian democracy demanded by Robespierre and others was unable to function as a government of laws in a modern European state. Fichte declared that he had produced the definitive statement of this Sieyèsian constitutionalism and claimed he had captured its true spirit by showing how it did not permanently exclude the possibility of far more egalitarian systems than those proposed by either Sieyès or Kant.Less
This chapter recounts how Fichte's theory of the state was profoundly shaped by his encounter with Rousseau, Sieyès, and Kant. Fichte developed a more radical version of the constitutional theory that had been advanced by Sieyès and Kant during the French Revolution, one that sought to improve upon Rousseau's description of constitutional government and to institutionalize his account of popular sovereignty. According to his many German admirers, it was Sieyès, and not his Jacobin opponents, who was the real inheritor of Rousseau, because the kind of egalitarian democracy demanded by Robespierre and others was unable to function as a government of laws in a modern European state. Fichte declared that he had produced the definitive statement of this Sieyèsian constitutionalism and claimed he had captured its true spirit by showing how it did not permanently exclude the possibility of far more egalitarian systems than those proposed by either Sieyès or Kant.
Isaac Nakhimovsky
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148946
- eISBN:
- 9781400838752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148946.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's focus, namely Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814), whose investigation of the idea of perpetual peace culminated in his Der geschlossene ...
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This introductory chapter first sets out the book's focus, namely Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814), whose investigation of the idea of perpetual peace culminated in his Der geschlossene Handelsstaat, or The Closed Commercial State (1800). Fichte was a sometime disciple and self-appointed successor of Kant, and is widely regarded as a major philosopher in his own right, but much of his political thought has yet to receive the sustained attention it deserves. His Closed Commercial State was a pivotal development of Kant's model of perpetual peace. This book shows how Fichte redefined the political economy of the Kantian ideal and extended it into a strategic analysis of the prospects for pacifying modern Europe. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's focus, namely Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814), whose investigation of the idea of perpetual peace culminated in his Der geschlossene Handelsstaat, or The Closed Commercial State (1800). Fichte was a sometime disciple and self-appointed successor of Kant, and is widely regarded as a major philosopher in his own right, but much of his political thought has yet to receive the sustained attention it deserves. His Closed Commercial State was a pivotal development of Kant's model of perpetual peace. This book shows how Fichte redefined the political economy of the Kantian ideal and extended it into a strategic analysis of the prospects for pacifying modern Europe. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Isaac Nakhimovsky
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148946
- eISBN:
- 9781400838752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148946.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter reveals that Fichte's proposal for a planned economy was an application of widespread eighteenth-century thinking about the positive possibilities created by modern finance: in this ...
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This chapter reveals that Fichte's proposal for a planned economy was an application of widespread eighteenth-century thinking about the positive possibilities created by modern finance: in this view, the state's ability to control the monetary system created an unprecedented opportunity to bring about a moral transformation of economic relations. It held out the promise of restoring a greater measure of equality to the modern division of labor without requiring massive expropriations or reversing the centuries of growth and development that had been fueled by the expansion of trade. For many other eighteenth-century minds, however, giving a government control over the money supply was a recipe for a new form of complete despotism.Less
This chapter reveals that Fichte's proposal for a planned economy was an application of widespread eighteenth-century thinking about the positive possibilities created by modern finance: in this view, the state's ability to control the monetary system created an unprecedented opportunity to bring about a moral transformation of economic relations. It held out the promise of restoring a greater measure of equality to the modern division of labor without requiring massive expropriations or reversing the centuries of growth and development that had been fueled by the expansion of trade. For many other eighteenth-century minds, however, giving a government control over the money supply was a recipe for a new form of complete despotism.
Isaac Nakhimovsky
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148946
- eISBN:
- 9781400838752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148946.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter describes how Fichte's book was perceived as an important challenge by admirers of Adam Smith because its normative evaluation of market society was grounded in a theory of property ...
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This chapter describes how Fichte's book was perceived as an important challenge by admirers of Adam Smith because its normative evaluation of market society was grounded in a theory of property rights whose foundational principle was the natural liberty of the individual. Fichte denied that the inequalities produced by the expanding division of labor could be justified by appealing to this principle. However, he was also highly critical of those who prioritized equality over autonomy by discerning inherent moral limits on the nature and scope of individual activity. To claim that property relations had to keep pace with the changing nature of this activity in an industrializing society, Fichte extended his mission to eliminate “the last vestiges of hypostasis still clinging to the Kantian system” into an effort to excise any semblance of natural rights from property theory. From this perspective, Fichte's Closed Commercial State emerges as an important contribution to the nineteenth-century critique of the discipline of political economy.Less
This chapter describes how Fichte's book was perceived as an important challenge by admirers of Adam Smith because its normative evaluation of market society was grounded in a theory of property rights whose foundational principle was the natural liberty of the individual. Fichte denied that the inequalities produced by the expanding division of labor could be justified by appealing to this principle. However, he was also highly critical of those who prioritized equality over autonomy by discerning inherent moral limits on the nature and scope of individual activity. To claim that property relations had to keep pace with the changing nature of this activity in an industrializing society, Fichte extended his mission to eliminate “the last vestiges of hypostasis still clinging to the Kantian system” into an effort to excise any semblance of natural rights from property theory. From this perspective, Fichte's Closed Commercial State emerges as an important contribution to the nineteenth-century critique of the discipline of political economy.
Isaac Nakhimovsky
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148946
- eISBN:
- 9781400838752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148946.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter shows how Fichte's response to Kant's essay Perpetual Peace culminated in The Closed Commercial State. Kant's essay defined the legal character of a peaceful international community. It ...
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This chapter shows how Fichte's response to Kant's essay Perpetual Peace culminated in The Closed Commercial State. Kant's essay defined the legal character of a peaceful international community. It also identified the historical processes favoring the emergence of an increasingly legalized and demilitarized European states system. The Closed Commercial State elaborated Kant's historical model into an account of the rise of global trade and its impact on state formation. Fichte concluded that the pacification of Europe envisioned by Kant was predicated on a resolution to the conflicts unleashed by heightened economic competition, both between and within states. In making this argument, Fichte developed an account of commerce and international relations that was closely aligned with contemporary pro-French and anti-English views of global trade and the European states system. Like Kant's Perpetual Peace, Fichte's Closed Commercial State was a highly abstracted theoretical investigation occasioned by a French diplomatic initiative championed by Sieyès. However, Fichte was much more willing than Kant to work out the details of a reform strategy predicated on Sieyès's efforts to engineer a French-led restructuring of the European balance of power.Less
This chapter shows how Fichte's response to Kant's essay Perpetual Peace culminated in The Closed Commercial State. Kant's essay defined the legal character of a peaceful international community. It also identified the historical processes favoring the emergence of an increasingly legalized and demilitarized European states system. The Closed Commercial State elaborated Kant's historical model into an account of the rise of global trade and its impact on state formation. Fichte concluded that the pacification of Europe envisioned by Kant was predicated on a resolution to the conflicts unleashed by heightened economic competition, both between and within states. In making this argument, Fichte developed an account of commerce and international relations that was closely aligned with contemporary pro-French and anti-English views of global trade and the European states system. Like Kant's Perpetual Peace, Fichte's Closed Commercial State was a highly abstracted theoretical investigation occasioned by a French diplomatic initiative championed by Sieyès. However, Fichte was much more willing than Kant to work out the details of a reform strategy predicated on Sieyès's efforts to engineer a French-led restructuring of the European balance of power.
John T. Hamilton
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157528
- eISBN:
- 9781400846474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157528.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter begins with a discussion of Kant, who led an almost abstract life of a confirmed bachelor. Heine links Kant's bachelorhood with his remote quarters, depicted as leading what we might ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of Kant, who led an almost abstract life of a confirmed bachelor. Heine links Kant's bachelorhood with his remote quarters, depicted as leading what we might call a “peaceful” (friedlich) life apart from the world, that is, one set within a “border fence”—an Umfriedigung or Einfriedigung, which are precisely the terms that the Grimms' Dictionary list as synonyms of Hag. The remainder of the chapter deals with Heinrich von Kleist's story “The Earthquake in Chile” (1807) and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, the erstwhile supporter of republican ideals and reputed Jacobin who felt compelled to instigate the latent power of the Prussian monarch.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of Kant, who led an almost abstract life of a confirmed bachelor. Heine links Kant's bachelorhood with his remote quarters, depicted as leading what we might call a “peaceful” (friedlich) life apart from the world, that is, one set within a “border fence”—an Umfriedigung or Einfriedigung, which are precisely the terms that the Grimms' Dictionary list as synonyms of Hag. The remainder of the chapter deals with Heinrich von Kleist's story “The Earthquake in Chile” (1807) and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, the erstwhile supporter of republican ideals and reputed Jacobin who felt compelled to instigate the latent power of the Prussian monarch.
Mike Higton
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199643929
- eISBN:
- 9780191738845
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199643929.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Religion and Society
This chapter, on the University of Berlin, argues that the Wissenschaftsideologie that surrounded the new university’s creation was, in part, an attempted repair of the broken and disputatious world ...
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This chapter, on the University of Berlin, argues that the Wissenschaftsideologie that surrounded the new university’s creation was, in part, an attempted repair of the broken and disputatious world of Christian learning. That is, the Romantic theorists Wissenschaft appropriated a tradition-specific Christian vision of free, peaceable exchange (the economy of gift and reception in the Body of Christ) and sought to remake the whole world of learning on the basis of that vision. That remaking required, however, that they revise or abandon anything that could not be made to fit with the proper freedom of such peaceable exchange, including the heteronomous commitment of learners to particular traditions of religious thought and practice. The account they provided of the university – indeed, the account they provided of reason itself – was therefore inescapably both theological and anti-theological.Less
This chapter, on the University of Berlin, argues that the Wissenschaftsideologie that surrounded the new university’s creation was, in part, an attempted repair of the broken and disputatious world of Christian learning. That is, the Romantic theorists Wissenschaft appropriated a tradition-specific Christian vision of free, peaceable exchange (the economy of gift and reception in the Body of Christ) and sought to remake the whole world of learning on the basis of that vision. That remaking required, however, that they revise or abandon anything that could not be made to fit with the proper freedom of such peaceable exchange, including the heteronomous commitment of learners to particular traditions of religious thought and practice. The account they provided of the university – indeed, the account they provided of reason itself – was therefore inescapably both theological and anti-theological.
Isaac Nakhimovsky
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148946
- eISBN:
- 9781400838752
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148946.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This book presents an important new account of Johann Gottlieb Fichte's Closed Commercial State, a major early nineteenth-century development of Rousseau and Kant's political thought. This book shows ...
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This book presents an important new account of Johann Gottlieb Fichte's Closed Commercial State, a major early nineteenth-century development of Rousseau and Kant's political thought. This book shows how Fichte reformulated Rousseau's constitutional politics and radicalized the economic implications of Kant's social contract theory with his defense of the right to work. The book argues that Fichte's sequel to Rousseau and Kant's writings on perpetual peace represents a pivotal moment in the intellectual history of the pacification of the West. Fichte claimed that Europe could not transform itself into a peaceful federation of constitutional republics unless economic life could be disentangled from the competitive dynamics of relations between states, and he asserted that this disentanglement required transitioning to a planned and largely self-sufficient national economy, made possible by a radical monetary policy. Fichte's ideas have resurfaced with nearly every crisis of globalization from the Napoleonic wars to the present, and his book remains a uniquely systematic and complete discussion of what John Maynard Keynes later termed “national self-sufficiency.” Fichte's provocative contribution to the social contract tradition reminds us, the book concludes, that the combination of a liberal theory of the state with an open economy and international system is a much more contingent and precarious outcome than many recent theorists have tended to assume.Less
This book presents an important new account of Johann Gottlieb Fichte's Closed Commercial State, a major early nineteenth-century development of Rousseau and Kant's political thought. This book shows how Fichte reformulated Rousseau's constitutional politics and radicalized the economic implications of Kant's social contract theory with his defense of the right to work. The book argues that Fichte's sequel to Rousseau and Kant's writings on perpetual peace represents a pivotal moment in the intellectual history of the pacification of the West. Fichte claimed that Europe could not transform itself into a peaceful federation of constitutional republics unless economic life could be disentangled from the competitive dynamics of relations between states, and he asserted that this disentanglement required transitioning to a planned and largely self-sufficient national economy, made possible by a radical monetary policy. Fichte's ideas have resurfaced with nearly every crisis of globalization from the Napoleonic wars to the present, and his book remains a uniquely systematic and complete discussion of what John Maynard Keynes later termed “national self-sufficiency.” Fichte's provocative contribution to the social contract tradition reminds us, the book concludes, that the combination of a liberal theory of the state with an open economy and international system is a much more contingent and precarious outcome than many recent theorists have tended to assume.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226136936
- eISBN:
- 9780226136950
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226136950.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter describes the theories of marriage by Immanuel Kant and Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Fichte's account of sexuality and marriage in the Foundations of Natural Right drew on a long ...
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This chapter describes the theories of marriage by Immanuel Kant and Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Fichte's account of sexuality and marriage in the Foundations of Natural Right drew on a long philosophical tradition. It shows that Fichte directly recurred to this theory of consciousness in his theory of marriage and also depended on a picture in which Lady Sensuality is something to be gradually “worked away” in the interest of a monistic metaphysics. Both Kant and Fichte considered sexual difference as a fundamental aspect of human social existence but recognized that it is extremely hard to justify purely by recourse to reason. Their accounts of marriage introduced the concept to respond to a scandal inherent in sexual congress. Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre and his theory of marriage provided the parameters for the Romantics who would at first be inspired by him and later slowly move away from him.Less
This chapter describes the theories of marriage by Immanuel Kant and Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Fichte's account of sexuality and marriage in the Foundations of Natural Right drew on a long philosophical tradition. It shows that Fichte directly recurred to this theory of consciousness in his theory of marriage and also depended on a picture in which Lady Sensuality is something to be gradually “worked away” in the interest of a monistic metaphysics. Both Kant and Fichte considered sexual difference as a fundamental aspect of human social existence but recognized that it is extremely hard to justify purely by recourse to reason. Their accounts of marriage introduced the concept to respond to a scandal inherent in sexual congress. Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre and his theory of marriage provided the parameters for the Romantics who would at first be inspired by him and later slowly move away from him.
Fred Dallmayr
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813124575
- eISBN:
- 9780813134994
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813124575.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter provides some historical background in an attempt to profile Friedrich Schiller's work against prominent intellectual currents of modernity. It offers a condensed discussion of the main ...
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This chapter provides some historical background in an attempt to profile Friedrich Schiller's work against prominent intellectual currents of modernity. It offers a condensed discussion of the main points made by Schiller, paying special attention to his relation to the philosophers Immanuel Kant and Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Finally, the chapter sketches the chief lines of subsequent historical responses and presents some final comments on the present significance of Schiller's work.Less
This chapter provides some historical background in an attempt to profile Friedrich Schiller's work against prominent intellectual currents of modernity. It offers a condensed discussion of the main points made by Schiller, paying special attention to his relation to the philosophers Immanuel Kant and Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Finally, the chapter sketches the chief lines of subsequent historical responses and presents some final comments on the present significance of Schiller's work.
Isaac Nakhimovsky
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148946
- eISBN:
- 9781400838752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148946.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter considers the broader implications of Fichte's work. Fichte's The Closed Commercial State was an intensive investigation into the prospects of Europe's transformation into the kind of ...
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This chapter considers the broader implications of Fichte's work. Fichte's The Closed Commercial State was an intensive investigation into the prospects of Europe's transformation into the kind of international federation envisioned by Kant. His analysis was not the product of an alien ideology but represented a notable attempt to join the constitutionalism of Rousseau, Sieyès, and Kant to widespread and fairly mainstream eighteenth-century views of commerce, finance, and the European states system. Fichte's Addresses to the German Nation, delivered in occupied Berlin in the winter of 1808–9, have achieved much greater notoriety than The Closed Commercial State as a supposed transmission of ancien régime power politics into the age of nationalism. In fact, they represent a further effort to extend Fichte's constitutional theory into a strategic response to immensely constricting historical circumstances.Less
This chapter considers the broader implications of Fichte's work. Fichte's The Closed Commercial State was an intensive investigation into the prospects of Europe's transformation into the kind of international federation envisioned by Kant. His analysis was not the product of an alien ideology but represented a notable attempt to join the constitutionalism of Rousseau, Sieyès, and Kant to widespread and fairly mainstream eighteenth-century views of commerce, finance, and the European states system. Fichte's Addresses to the German Nation, delivered in occupied Berlin in the winter of 1808–9, have achieved much greater notoriety than The Closed Commercial State as a supposed transmission of ancien régime power politics into the age of nationalism. In fact, they represent a further effort to extend Fichte's constitutional theory into a strategic response to immensely constricting historical circumstances.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226136936
- eISBN:
- 9780226136950
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226136950.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter tries to illustrate that Novalis' use of marriage-as-model is far less arbitrary than some of his notes can make it seem. Novalis' political writings of marriage addressed a veritable ...
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This chapter tries to illustrate that Novalis' use of marriage-as-model is far less arbitrary than some of his notes can make it seem. Novalis' political writings of marriage addressed a veritable carousel of the sexes, families, and dynasties. Faith and Love provided a sketch of a poetic state organized around and by a (royal) couple. The triple function of the concept of “love” inspired Novalis' central claim in Faith and Love. In combination with the somewhat later Political Aphorisms, Faith and Love offered an answer to the question that bedeviled Johann Gottlieb Fichte's metaphysics of marriage. His reflections on loving couples and their kingdoms in his fairy tales work through an increasingly dizzying calculus aimed at upsetting traditional structures of dominance opted for imbrication rather than hierarchization. Marriage exhibited the spontaneity and dignity of the forces of free attachment, and distressed any strictly paternalistic analogies between kingdom and household.Less
This chapter tries to illustrate that Novalis' use of marriage-as-model is far less arbitrary than some of his notes can make it seem. Novalis' political writings of marriage addressed a veritable carousel of the sexes, families, and dynasties. Faith and Love provided a sketch of a poetic state organized around and by a (royal) couple. The triple function of the concept of “love” inspired Novalis' central claim in Faith and Love. In combination with the somewhat later Political Aphorisms, Faith and Love offered an answer to the question that bedeviled Johann Gottlieb Fichte's metaphysics of marriage. His reflections on loving couples and their kingdoms in his fairy tales work through an increasingly dizzying calculus aimed at upsetting traditional structures of dominance opted for imbrication rather than hierarchization. Marriage exhibited the spontaneity and dignity of the forces of free attachment, and distressed any strictly paternalistic analogies between kingdom and household.
Kurt Flasch
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300204865
- eISBN:
- 9780300216370
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300204865.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter examines Meister Eckhart's commentary on the Gospel of John. It first considers Johann Gottlieb Fichte's conception of man and mind in The Way towards the Blessed Life (Berlin, 1806) ...
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This chapter examines Meister Eckhart's commentary on the Gospel of John. It first considers Johann Gottlieb Fichte's conception of man and mind in The Way towards the Blessed Life (Berlin, 1806) before turning to Eckhart's commentary on John. In particular, it discusses three important innovations in the commentary: first, Eckhart clarifies that he will demonstrate the unity of the Gospel and metaphysics; second, he developed his metaphysics of the verbum; and third, he uses the Aristotelian-Averroistic theory of the unity of the knower and the known to explain how the just man is within Justice. Eckhart's explanation of his method shows that he is making his intention known with regards to his interpretation of John and in all of his works: to demonstrate the truth of Christianity philosophically and to prove the bases of natural philosophy of the Gospel of John with philosophical argumentation.Less
This chapter examines Meister Eckhart's commentary on the Gospel of John. It first considers Johann Gottlieb Fichte's conception of man and mind in The Way towards the Blessed Life (Berlin, 1806) before turning to Eckhart's commentary on John. In particular, it discusses three important innovations in the commentary: first, Eckhart clarifies that he will demonstrate the unity of the Gospel and metaphysics; second, he developed his metaphysics of the verbum; and third, he uses the Aristotelian-Averroistic theory of the unity of the knower and the known to explain how the just man is within Justice. Eckhart's explanation of his method shows that he is making his intention known with regards to his interpretation of John and in all of his works: to demonstrate the truth of Christianity philosophically and to prove the bases of natural philosophy of the Gospel of John with philosophical argumentation.
Vittorio Hösle
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691167190
- eISBN:
- 9781400883042
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691167190.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter examines German idealism, which is the only philosophical school of thought has retained the epithet “German.” The reason being is because it was the most intellectually ambitious ...
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This chapter examines German idealism, which is the only philosophical school of thought has retained the epithet “German.” The reason being is because it was the most intellectually ambitious philosophy that Germany has produced; and because it succeeded in integrating almost all the innovative achievements of earlier German philosophy in the shape of a system, the most complex form of philosophical thought. The religious motivation of the three main figures within this movement contributed to the emergence of a kind of philosophical religiousness that was new in world history. These three crucial figures are Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814), Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854), and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831).Less
This chapter examines German idealism, which is the only philosophical school of thought has retained the epithet “German.” The reason being is because it was the most intellectually ambitious philosophy that Germany has produced; and because it succeeded in integrating almost all the innovative achievements of earlier German philosophy in the shape of a system, the most complex form of philosophical thought. The religious motivation of the three main figures within this movement contributed to the emergence of a kind of philosophical religiousness that was new in world history. These three crucial figures are Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814), Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854), and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831).
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226136936
- eISBN:
- 9780226136950
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226136950.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter explores how Sophie Mereau submitted Johann Gottlieb Fichte's thought on gender to scrutiny. It shows that Mereau expressed at the very outset of the marital metaphysics inaugurated by ...
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This chapter explores how Sophie Mereau submitted Johann Gottlieb Fichte's thought on gender to scrutiny. It shows that Mereau expressed at the very outset of the marital metaphysics inaugurated by Fichte a similar discomfort with the insularity that goes along with this absolute autonomization of the love relation. Mereau's novel clearly partakes in the metaphysics of marriage. She saw the problems attending on a metaphysical discourse of marriage and insisted on suspending her novel between the promises the metaphysical approach held for the Jena circle on the one hand and the vicissitudes that lay in store for any such approach on the other. Blüthenalter der Empfindung was marked by two different kinds of plots: the “main” plot detailing the romance of Albert and Nanette and the family saga of Nanette and Lorenzo. This novel, and Mereau's oeuvre as a whole, made an ambivalent contribution to the metaphysics of marriage.Less
This chapter explores how Sophie Mereau submitted Johann Gottlieb Fichte's thought on gender to scrutiny. It shows that Mereau expressed at the very outset of the marital metaphysics inaugurated by Fichte a similar discomfort with the insularity that goes along with this absolute autonomization of the love relation. Mereau's novel clearly partakes in the metaphysics of marriage. She saw the problems attending on a metaphysical discourse of marriage and insisted on suspending her novel between the promises the metaphysical approach held for the Jena circle on the one hand and the vicissitudes that lay in store for any such approach on the other. Blüthenalter der Empfindung was marked by two different kinds of plots: the “main” plot detailing the romance of Albert and Nanette and the family saga of Nanette and Lorenzo. This novel, and Mereau's oeuvre as a whole, made an ambivalent contribution to the metaphysics of marriage.
Stanley Rosen
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226065885
- eISBN:
- 9780226065915
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226065915.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter examines Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s concept of quantitative relation which he explains in detail in his Science of Logic. It begins with an overview of Hegel’s treatment of quantity ...
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This chapter examines Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s concept of quantitative relation which he explains in detail in his Science of Logic. It begins with an overview of Hegel’s treatment of quantity in relation to quality, as well as his account of essence or substance. Drawing on the earlier work of John Locke and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, it discusses Hegel’s analysis of reflection. It considers Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre or Doctrine of Science (1794), with emphasis on his interpretation of the three laws of thought: identity, difference, and the ground—his version of the law of noncontradiction. The chapter concludes by citing defects in the Fichtean formulation of reflection from a Hegelian perspective.Less
This chapter examines Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s concept of quantitative relation which he explains in detail in his Science of Logic. It begins with an overview of Hegel’s treatment of quantity in relation to quality, as well as his account of essence or substance. Drawing on the earlier work of John Locke and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, it discusses Hegel’s analysis of reflection. It considers Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre or Doctrine of Science (1794), with emphasis on his interpretation of the three laws of thought: identity, difference, and the ground—his version of the law of noncontradiction. The chapter concludes by citing defects in the Fichtean formulation of reflection from a Hegelian perspective.
Tom Rockmore
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226349909
- eISBN:
- 9780226350073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226350073.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Chapter 3, “Fichte’s transcendental philosophy, the subject and circularity,” focuses on Fichte’s rethinking of the conception of the subject, and, as a result, ontology and cognition from a fully ...
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Chapter 3, “Fichte’s transcendental philosophy, the subject and circularity,” focuses on Fichte’s rethinking of the conception of the subject, and, as a result, ontology and cognition from a fully subject-centered perspective. The result is to remove the ambiguity in the critical philosophy about the status of the noumenon, or mind-independent real, which Kant inconsistently describes as uncognizable but as also indispensable for cognition. The chapter also treats the Fichtean link to the two-aspects thesis in his Deduction of representation. I show that Fichte states this representational approach to knowledge while denying its validity in a constructivist approach to cognition.Less
Chapter 3, “Fichte’s transcendental philosophy, the subject and circularity,” focuses on Fichte’s rethinking of the conception of the subject, and, as a result, ontology and cognition from a fully subject-centered perspective. The result is to remove the ambiguity in the critical philosophy about the status of the noumenon, or mind-independent real, which Kant inconsistently describes as uncognizable but as also indispensable for cognition. The chapter also treats the Fichtean link to the two-aspects thesis in his Deduction of representation. I show that Fichte states this representational approach to knowledge while denying its validity in a constructivist approach to cognition.
Tom Rockmore
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226349909
- eISBN:
- 9780226350073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226350073.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
“Hegel, Identity and Constructivism,” the fifth chapter, examines the relationship of Hegel, beginning in the so-called Differenzschrift, his first philosophical publication, to Kant, Fichte and ...
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“Hegel, Identity and Constructivism,” the fifth chapter, examines the relationship of Hegel, beginning in the so-called Differenzschrift, his first philosophical publication, to Kant, Fichte and Schelling, his great idealist predecessors. I further discuss the emergence of Hegel’s constructivist theory of cognition in the Phenomenology as well as its application in his Philosophy of Nature. The chapter finally considers Hegel’s understanding of the link between dialectical logic and cognitive constructivism in both the smaller and greater Logics.Less
“Hegel, Identity and Constructivism,” the fifth chapter, examines the relationship of Hegel, beginning in the so-called Differenzschrift, his first philosophical publication, to Kant, Fichte and Schelling, his great idealist predecessors. I further discuss the emergence of Hegel’s constructivist theory of cognition in the Phenomenology as well as its application in his Philosophy of Nature. The chapter finally considers Hegel’s understanding of the link between dialectical logic and cognitive constructivism in both the smaller and greater Logics.
Abraham P. Socher
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804751360
- eISBN:
- 9780804767682
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804751360.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
With extraordinary chutzpa and deep philosophical seriousness, Solomon ben Joshua of Lithuania renamed himself after his medieval intellectual hero, Moses Maimonides. Solomon Maimon was perhaps the ...
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With extraordinary chutzpa and deep philosophical seriousness, Solomon ben Joshua of Lithuania renamed himself after his medieval intellectual hero, Moses Maimonides. Solomon Maimon was perhaps the most brilliant and certainly the most controversial figure of the late eighteenth-century Jewish Enlightenment. He scandalized rabbinic authorities, embarrassed Moses Mendelssohn, provoked Immanuel Kant, charmed Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and inspired Johann Gottlieb Fichte, among others. This study of Maimon integrates his idiosyncratic philosophical idealism with his popular autobiography, and with his early exegetical, mystical, and Maimonidean work in Hebrew. In doing so, it illuminates the intellectual and spiritual possibilities open to a European Jew at the turn of the nineteenth century.Less
With extraordinary chutzpa and deep philosophical seriousness, Solomon ben Joshua of Lithuania renamed himself after his medieval intellectual hero, Moses Maimonides. Solomon Maimon was perhaps the most brilliant and certainly the most controversial figure of the late eighteenth-century Jewish Enlightenment. He scandalized rabbinic authorities, embarrassed Moses Mendelssohn, provoked Immanuel Kant, charmed Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and inspired Johann Gottlieb Fichte, among others. This study of Maimon integrates his idiosyncratic philosophical idealism with his popular autobiography, and with his early exegetical, mystical, and Maimonidean work in Hebrew. In doing so, it illuminates the intellectual and spiritual possibilities open to a European Jew at the turn of the nineteenth century.
Stanley Rosen
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226065885
- eISBN:
- 9780226065915
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226065915.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter focuses on Johann Gottlieb Fichte as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s immediate predecessor and the second volume of Science of Logic, in which Hegel introduces book 2 on Wesen. It first ...
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This chapter focuses on Johann Gottlieb Fichte as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s immediate predecessor and the second volume of Science of Logic, in which Hegel introduces book 2 on Wesen. It first analyzes Hegel’s general doctrine of the shift from being to essence on the one hand, and from essence to the concept on the other, before turning to Fichte’s account of reflection in his Wissenschaftslehre or Doctrine of Science (1794). In particular, it examines Fichte’s attempts to correct the defect of Immanuel Kant’s version of Kantianism through an intellectual intuition of the working transcendental ego. The chapter then considers Fichte’s notion of the human being before concluding with a discussion of Fichte and Hegel’s search for a version of the law of noncontradiction based on both identity and difference.Less
This chapter focuses on Johann Gottlieb Fichte as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s immediate predecessor and the second volume of Science of Logic, in which Hegel introduces book 2 on Wesen. It first analyzes Hegel’s general doctrine of the shift from being to essence on the one hand, and from essence to the concept on the other, before turning to Fichte’s account of reflection in his Wissenschaftslehre or Doctrine of Science (1794). In particular, it examines Fichte’s attempts to correct the defect of Immanuel Kant’s version of Kantianism through an intellectual intuition of the working transcendental ego. The chapter then considers Fichte’s notion of the human being before concluding with a discussion of Fichte and Hegel’s search for a version of the law of noncontradiction based on both identity and difference.
