New Essays in Fichte's Foundation of the Entire Doctrine of Scientific Knowledge

This collection of 13 essays on the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte is the first volume in English to focus upon Fichte's most celebrated and influential philosophical text, his Grundlage der gesamten Wissenschaftslehre ("Foundation of the Entire Doctrine of Scientific Knowledge"). Fichte's Grundlage is an audaciously original effort to recast the Kantian philosophy into a full-blown system of "transcendental idealism." Rejecting all reference to "things in themselves," Fichte described his work as "the first philosophy of human freedom" and as a faithful expression of the true "spirit" of Kant's critical philosophy. For all of its deficiencies, the Grundlage occupied an absolutely pivotal role in the development of German idealism after Kant. Both Schelling and Hegel, for example, were profoundly influenced by the Grundlage. Most of the essays in this collection address specific themes and problems in the context of the Grundlage, such as imagination, time, representation, reflection, deduction, and transcendental methodology. Others examine the relationship of Fichte's philosophy to Kant's and the influence of the Grundlage upon such philosophers as Jacobi, Schelling, and Hegel. Collectively, these essays constitute an ideal introduction to the reading of Fichte's notoriously difficult but deeply rewarding work. Introduction (Tom Rockmore) 2 PART I: AN OVERVIEW OF FICHTE'S GRUNDLAGE 11 1. Inference, Intuition, and Imagination: On the Methodology and Method of the First Jena Wissenschaftslehre (Daniel Breazeale) 12 PART II: DEDUCTION IN THE GRUNDLAGE 30 2. Fichte's Deduction of Representation in the 1794-1795 Grundlage (Steven Hoeltzel) 31 3. Fichte on Deduction in the Jena Wissenschaftslehre (Tom Rockmore) 52 PART III: SPECIAL ISSUES IN THE GRUNDLAGE 70 4. Self-Measure and Self-Moderation in Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre (Michael Baur) 71 5. Reflective Judgment and the Boundaries of Finite Human Knowledge: The Path Toward Fichte's 1795-95 Wissenschaftslehre (Arnold Farr) 93 6. Imagination and Time in Fichte's Grundlage (C. Jeffrey Kinlaw) 112 7. Positing and Determining in Fichte's Foundation of the Entire Wissenschaftslehre (Gunter Zoller) 128 PART IV: COMPARATIVE STUDIES 143 8. Satz and Urteil in Kant's Critical Philosophy and Fichte's Grundlage der Gesamten Wissenschaftslehre (Jere Paul Surber) 144 9. The Paradox of Primary Reflection (Pierre Kerszberg) 154 10. Schelling's Vom Ich als Princip der Philosophie as a Reading of Fichte's Grundlage der Gersammten Wissenschaftslehre (Michael G. Vater) 172 11. Between Kant and Hegel: Fichte's Foundations of the Entire Science of Knowledge (Vladimir Zeman) 186 12. Jacobi's Philosophy of Faith and Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre 1794-95 (Curtis Bowman) 199 PART V: ON THE RECEPTION OF THE GRUNDLAGE 216 13. The Early Critical Reception of the 1794 Wissenschaftslehre (Dale Snow) 217 14. Hegel's Early Reaction to Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre: The Case of the Misplaced Adjective (George Seidel) 231 This volume is the third in a series culled from the conferences organized by the North American Fichte Society. Edited By Daniel Breazeale And Tom Rockmore. Includes Bibliographical References.