Johann Gottlieb Fichte
1762-1814 · German Idealism · Prominent
Fichte was a German idealist who set out to finish Kant's work by grounding all experience in a single act. Begin with an I that makes itself by positing itself, he said, and the rest follows. In that same stroke it throws up a not-I, a world set against it to work on, so all reality comes of the self drawing its own limits. The self is a deed before it is a thing, and its business is moral striving.
Signature
The position Fichte is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Mind
- strongly leans Beyond Brain
- Agency
- Libertarian Free Will
Positions on the 15 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- mildly leans Mechanistic (33 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- mildly between Collectivism and Individualism (58 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Mind
- strongly leans Beyond Brain (92 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- The Divine
- leans Indescribable (75 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Universals
- mildly leans Nominalism (67 on a 0–100 scale from Realism to Nominalism)
- Meaning
- leans Inherent (75 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Unity (25 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- leans Transcendence (79 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- leans Objective (80 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Nature
- leans Mastery (25 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Polity
- leans Illiberalism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- Ethics
- leans Means (80 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- War
- leans Militarism (75 on a 0–100 scale from Pacifism to Militarism)
- Ignorance
- strongly leans Bondage (8 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Conviction
- leans Certain (75 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
5 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Fichte refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Pantheism / Panentheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Communal Order / Representative Democracy
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Freedom
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Moral Realism
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Transfiguration
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Perception
- Idealism
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Pure Reason / Receptive Intellect
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Categorical Imperative
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Libertarian Free Will
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Mind-Only
What is the origin of reality? - Time
- Linear Progressive / Eschatological
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Economy
- State Socialism / Cooperative Commonwealth
What is the ideal organization of economic life? - Authority
- Consent of the Governed
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Logos
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Paradox
- Dialectical Sublation
What is the status of paradox? - Law
- Social Contract
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Death
- Other
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Evaluative Judgment
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Existence Precedes Essence
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- The Divine
What is your primary bond and loyalty?