Abstract
In an eighteen-month period spanning 1794–95 Fichte published the two texts that make up the core of the first and most influential version of his philosophical system, the Wissenschaftslehre. The earlier text, Concerning the Concept of the Wissenschaftslehre (hereafter, Concept), appeared just before Fichte began his first teaching post at the University of Jena. Its purpose was to communicate the aims and method of his new philosophy to prospective students. The second and more important text, Foundation of the Entire Wissenschaftslehre1 (hereafter, Foundation), was also addressed to Fichte’s students and written as a supplement to his lectures on the Wissenschaftslehre in 1794–95.
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Notes
Although Fichte later abandons this position, he clearly believes in the need for a certain starting point in this text. For an account of this development in Fichte’s thought, see Frederick Neuhouser, Fichte’s Theory of Subjectivity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 53–65.
See Daniel Breazeale, “Fichte on Skepticism,” Journal of the History of Philosophy 29, no. 3 (July 1991): 427–53.
Fichte arrives at his view of the fundamental feature of consciousness via a critique of K. L. Reinhold’s first principle, the “principle of consciousness.” See Daniel Breazeale, “Between Kant and Fichte: Karl Leonhard Reinhold’s ‘Elementary Philosophy,’” Review of Metaphysics 35, no. 4 (June 1982): 804–21; and Neuhouser, Fichte’s Theory of Subjectivity, 70–75.
Robert B. Pippin, “Fichte’s Contribution,” Philosophical Forum 19, nos. 2/3 (1987/88): 89.
For an interpretation that makes plausible the claim that the I requires a not-I, see Allen W. Wood, “Fichte’s Philosophical Revolution,” Philosophical Topics 19, no. 2 (fall 1991): 12–16.
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© 2014 Frederick Neuhouser
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Neuhouser, F. (2014). Fichte’s Methodology in the Wissenschaftslehre (1794–95). In: Altman, M.C. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism. The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-33475-6_16
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