Fichte's Transcendental Philosophy: The Original Duplicity of Intelligence and Will (Modern European Philosophy)

This is the first book in English on the early works of the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814). It examines the transcendental theory of self and world from the writings of Fichte's most influential period (1794-1800), and considers in detail recently discovered lectures on the Foundations of Transcendental Philosophy. Combining incomparable erudition, sensitive readings of some of the most difficult of philosophical texts, clarity in exposition and an acute awareness of historical context, this book takes its place as the ideal introduction to Fichte's thought. Both systematically and historically, Fichte's Wissenshaftslehre represents a further development of Kant's critical philosophy, prepared and inspired by the latter's earlier reception through Karl Leonhard Reinhold, Gottlob Ernst Schulze, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi and Salomon Maimon.