Transcendental Philosophy, Method, and System in Kant, Fichte, and Hegel

Abstract

In this chapter I look at Fichte’s early philosophy in light of a general problem that connects the different endeavors of classical German thought in Kant’s aftermath. Although the question is a very broad one — and one raised time and again in the literature — I address it as part of a larger, more specific problematic constellation that starts at Hegel and turns back to Kant. At stake is, on the one hand, the question of the conditions and limits of the transcendental method inaugurated by Kant and, on the other hand, the connection between the claim that philosophy should be developed as a system and the method best suited to this aim. Ultimately, at issue here is, besides the meaning of philosophical method as a method for doing philosophy or for philosophical thinking, also the question of the parts of the system or the disciplines (and objects) with which philosophy should concern itself.