No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Fichte’s Politics of Cultural Awakening
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2025
Abstract
Although scholars agree that Fichte’s earliest political writings are Kantian, they contain a theory of individual emancipation through a culture of perfection that is foreign to Kant’s Doctrine of Right. I argue that Fichte based his theory on Kant’s moral duty and therefore derived the conclusion that individual morality should be the constitution’s aim. As a result, principles of right are not limited to securing relations of external freedom among equals but concerned with creating a society of autonomous individuals. Reaching that end goes through emancipation both from the oppression of sensibility over rationality and from the false consciousness that upholds voluntary servitude to unjust regimes. As an alternative Kantian path, Fichte provides philosophical grounding for movements seeking political emancipation through cultural awakening.
Information
- Type
- Article
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Kantian Review
References
Bacin, Stefano, (2021) ‘My duties and the morality of others lying: truth, and the good example in fichte’s normative perfectionism’. In Bacin, Stefano and Ware, Owen (eds.), Fichte’s System of Ethics: A Critical Guide. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beiser, Frederick (2017) ‘Fichte and the french revolution.’ In James, David and Zoller, Günther (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Fichte (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), pp. 38–64.Google Scholar
Boëtie, Étienne de la (1793) Über die Alleinherrschaft, trans. Johan Benjamin Erhard, Der neue teutsche Merkur, 1 Bd 1793, vol. 10.Google Scholar
Brink, David O (2019) ‘Normative Perfectionism and the Kantian Tradition.’ Philosopher’s Imprint, 19(45), 1–28.Google Scholar
Erhard, Johann Benjamin (1970) Über das Recht zu einer Revolution des Volkes und andere Schriften, ed. and trans. Haasis, Hellmut G.. München: Carl Hanser Verlag.Google Scholar
Fahmy, Melissa Seymour (2018) ‘Kantian perspectives on paternalism.’ In Hanna, Jason and Grill, Kalle (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Paternalism (New York: Routledge), pp. 96–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fichte, J.G. (1996) ‘Reclamation of the freedom of thought from the Princes of Europe, who have oppressed it until now.’ In Schmidt, James (ed.), What Is Enlightenment?: Eighteenth-Century Answers and Twentieth-Century Questions, (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 119–142.Google Scholar
Fichte, J.G (2009) Addresses to the German Nation, (ed.) Moore, Gregory. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fichte, J.G. (2021) Contribution to the Correction of the Public’s Judgments on the French Revolution. Albany: Suny Press.Google Scholar
Gotlieb, Gabriel (2018) ‘A Family Quarrel Fichte’s Deduction of Right and Recognition.’ In Dahlstrom, Daniel O. (ed.), Kant and His German Contemporaries. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Guyer, Paul (2016) ‘Kantian perfectionism.’ In The Virtues of Freedom: Selected Essays on Kant. (Oxford, Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henrich, Dieter (1967) ‘Über den Sinn vernünftigen Handelns im Staat’. In Henrich, Dieter (ed.), Kant, Gentz, Rehberg: Über Theorie und Praxis (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp), pp. 115–130.Google Scholar
Humboldt, Wilhelm von (1969) The Limits of State Action, (ed.) Burrow, J. W.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, David (2015) Fichte’s Republic: Idealism, History and Nationalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1996a) ‘An answer to the question: What is enlightenment?’ In Gregor, Mary (trans. and ed.), Immanuel Kant: Practical Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 11–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1996b) ‘Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals’. In Gregor, Mary (trans. and ed.), Immanuel Kant: Practical Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 133–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1996c) ‘Critique of pracrical reason’. In Gregor, Mary (trans. and ed.), Immanuel Kant: Practical Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 37–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1996d) ‘On the common saying: that may be correct in theory, but it is of no use in practice’. In Gregor, Mary (trans. and ed.), Immanuel Kant: Practical Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 273–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1996e) ‘Towards perpetual peace’. In Gregor, Mary (trans. and ed.), Immanuel Kant: Practical Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 311–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1996f) ‘The metaphysics of morals’. In Gregor, Mary (trans. and ed.), Immanuel Kant: Practical Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 353–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1996g) ‘Religion within the boundaries of mere reason’. trans. George di Giovanni, In Wood, Allen W. and di Giovanni, George (eds.), Immanuel Kant: Religion and Rational Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 39–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1996h) ‘The conflict of the faculties,’ trans. Mary J. Gregor and Robert Anchor, In Wood, Allen W. and di Giovanni, George (eds.), Immanuel Kant: Religion and Rational Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 233–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (2000) Critique of the power of judgment, trans. Guyer, Paul and Matthews, Eric, ed. Guyer, Paul. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klippel, Diethelm (1976) Politische Freiheit und Freiheitsrechte im deutschen Naturrecht des 18. Jahrhunderts. Schöningh, Paderborn.Google Scholar
Koselleck, Reinhart (1988) Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the Pathogenesis of Modern Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
La Vopa, Anthony J. (1989) ‘The revelatory moment: fichte and the french revolution.’ Central European History 22, 130–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maliks, Reidar (2012) ‘Revolutionary epigones: kant and his radical followers.’ History of Political Thought 33, 647–671.Google Scholar
Moggach, Douglas (2009) ‘Freedom and perfection: german debates on the state in the eighteenth century.’ Canadian Journal of Political Science, 42(4), 1003–1023.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moggach, Douglas (2021) ‘Left-Kantian perfectionism.’ Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society, 33(2), 184–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, Michael (2011) ‘The french revolution and the new school of europe: towards a political interpretation of german idealism.’ European Journal of Philosophy 19(4), 532–560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pallikkathayil, Japa (2016) ‘Neither perfectionism nor political liberalism.’ Philosophy & Public Affairs 44(3), 171–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philonenko, Alexis (1968) Théorie et praxis dans la pensée morale et politique de Kant et de Fichte en 1793. Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin.Google Scholar
Waibel, Violetta L. (2006) ‘On the fundamental connection between moral law and natural right in Fichte’s contribution (1793) and foundations of natural right (1796/97).’ In Rockmore, Tom and Breazeale, Daniel (eds.), Rights, Bodies and Recognition: New Essays on Fichte’s Foundations of Natural Right (London: Ashgate, 2006), pp. 45–58.Google Scholar
Wolff, Christian (2003) Reasonable Thoughts About the Actions of Men, for the Promotion of Their Happiness, in Moral Philosophy from Montaigne to Kant, ed. Schneewind, J. B. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Yack, Bernard (1986) The Longing for Total Revolution: Philosophic Sources of Social Discontent from Rousseau to Marx and Nietzsche. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986.Google Scholar