Fichte’s Life and Philosophical Trajectory

Abstract

J. G. Fichte presented his transcendental idealism in many different ways, but despite radical changes in terms, style, and method throughout his philosophical development, each version retained the essence of the one and only Wissenschaftslehre. His philosophical task was always to relate life or human consciousness (that is, sensible experience at the empirical standpoint) to its supersensible ground (that is, pure consciousness at the transcendental standpoint). Although life and philosophy are opposites, life presumes concepts and principles that can only be justified by philosophy at the transcendental standpoint, and philosophy presupposes feelings, intuitions, and beliefs that can only be discovered at the empirical standpoint.