Immanuel Hermann Fichte

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Immanuel Hermann Fichte bigraphy, stories - Philosophers

Immanuel Hermann Fichte : biography

18 July 1796 – 8 August 1879

Immanuel Hermann von Fichte (18 July 1796 – 8 August 1879) was a German philosopher and son of Johann Gottlieb Fichte. In his philosophy, he was a theist and strongly opposed to the Hegelian School.

Life

Fichte was born in Jena. He early devoted himself to philosophical studies, being attracted by the later views of his father, which he considered essentially theistic. He graduated from the University of Berlin in 1818. Soon after, he became a lecturer in philosophy there. He also attended the lectures of Hegel, but felt averse to what he deemed to be his pantheistic tendencies. As a result of semi-official suggestions, based on official disapproval of his supposedly liberal views, he decided, in 1822, to leave Berlin, and accepted a professorship at the gymnasium in Saarbrücken. In 1826 he went in the same capacity to Düsseldorf. In 1836 he became an extraordinary professor of philosophy at Bonn, and in 1840 full professor. Here he quickly became a successful and much admired lecturer. Dissatisfied with the reactionary tendencies of the Prussian Ministry of Education, he accepted a call to the chair of philosophy at the University of Tübingen in 1842 where he continued to give lectures on all philosophic subjects until his retirement in 1875 when he moved to Stuttgart. He died at Stuttgart on the 8th of August 1879.

In 1837, Fichte founded the Zeitschrift für Philosophie und speculative Theologie and edited from then on. In 1847, the name was changed to Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik. Publication was suspended 1848-1852, after which Hermann Ulrici and Johann Ulrich Wirth joined him as editors. This journal served as an organ of Fichte’s views, especially on the subject of the philosophy of religion, where he was in alliance with C.H. Weisse; but, whereas Weisse thought that the Hegelian structure was sound in the main, and its imperfections might be mended, Fichte held it to be defective, and spoke of it as a masterpiece of erroneous consistency or consistent error. Fichte’s general views on philosophy seem to have changed considerably as he gained in years, and his influence has been impaired by certain inconsistencies and an appearance of eclecticism, which is strengthened by his predominantly historical treatment of systems, his desire to include divergent systems within his own, and his conciliatory tone.

Works

  • De philosophiae novae Platonicae origine (1818).
  • Sätze zur Vorschule der Theologie (1826). .
  • Beiträge zur Charakteristik der neueren Philosophie (1829). . 2nd edition, 1841. ; .
  • Johann Gottlieb Fichtes Leben und literarischer Briefwechsel (1830–31). 2 volumes.
    • Volume 1, 1830. 2nd edition, 1862. ; ; .
    • Volume 2, 1831. . 2nd edition, 1862. ; .
  • Über Gegensatz, Wendepunkt und Ziel heutiger Philosophie (1832). .
  • Grundzüge zum Systeme der Philosophie (1833–1846). 3 volumes.
    • Volume 1, 1833. Das Erkennen als Selbsterkennen. .
    • Volume 2, 1836. Die Ontologie. ; .
    • Volume 3, 1846. Die speculative Theologie oder allgemeine Religionslehre. .
  • Die Idee der Persönlichkeit und die individuelle Fortdauer (1834). 2nd edition, 1855.
  • De principiorum contradictionis (1840). .
  • System der Ethik (1850–53). 2 volumes.
    • Volume 1, 1850. ; ; ; .
    • Volume 2, part 1, 1851. ; ; ; .
    • Volume 2, part 2, 1853. ; .
  • Anthropologie, Die Lehre von der menschlichen Seele (1856). ; ; . 2nd edition, 1860. ; . 3rd edition, 1876.
  • Über den Unterschied zwischen ethischem und naturalistischem Theismus (1857).
  • Zur Seelenfrage, Eine philosophische Confession (1859). .
    • Contributions to Mental Philosophy (1860). .
  • Psychologie. Die Lehre vom bewussten Geiste des Menschen (1864–73). 2 volumes. ; .
    • Volume 1, 1864.
    • Volume 2, 1873. .
  • Die Seelenfortdauer und die Weltstellung des Menschen (1867).
  • Vermischte Schriften zur Philosophie, Theologie und Ethik (1869). 2 volumes. .
    • Volume 1. .
    • Volume 2. .
  • Die theistische Weltansicht und ihre Berechtigung (1873). ; .
  • Fragen und Bedenken über die nächste Fortbildung deutscher Speculation (1876). ; ; .
  • Der neuere Spiritualismus, sein Wert und seine Täuschungen (1878). .