Editing Johann Gottlieb Fichte (section)

==Biography==
===Origins===
Fichte was born in [[Rammenau]], [[Upper Lusatia]], and baptized a [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]].<ref name="Verkamp 2008 p.">{{cite book | last=Verkamp | first=B.J. | title=Encyclopedia of Philosophers on Religion | publisher=McFarland & Company, Incorporated, Publishers | year=2008 | isbn=978-0-7864-3286-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K9sPAQAAIAAJ | access-date=2022-11-02}}</ref> The son of a ribbon weaver,<ref name="nie">{{cite NIE|wstitle=Fichte, Johann Gottlieb|year=1905}}</ref> Fichte was born into a pious family that had lived in the region for generations. Christian Fichte (1737–1812), Johann Gottlieb's father, married on Maria Dorothea Fichte, [[Birth name|née]] Schurich (1739–1813) somewhat above his class. It has been suggested that a certain impatience which Fichte himself displayed throughout his life was an inheritance from his mother.<ref name="americana"/>

He received a rudimentary education from his father. He showed remarkable ability from an early age, and it was owing to his reputation among the villagers that he gained the opportunity for a better education than he otherwise would have received. The story runs that the [[Freiherr]] von Miltitz, a country landowner, arrived too late to hear the local pastor preach. He was, however, informed that a lad in the neighborhood would be able to repeat the sermon almost ''verbatim''. As a result, the baron took Fichte into his protection and paid for his tuition.<ref name="americana">{{cite Americana|wstitle=Fichte, Johann Gottlieb|year=1920}}</ref>

===Early schooling===
Fichte was placed in the family of Pastor Krebel at [[Niederau]] near [[Meissen]], and there received a thorough grounding in the [[classics]]. From this time onward, Fichte saw little of his parents. In October 1774, he attended the celebrated foundation-school at [[Pforta]] near [[Naumburg]]. Freiherr von Miltitz continued to support him, but died in 1774. The Pforta school is associated with the names of [[Novalis]], [[August Wilhelm Schlegel]], [[Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel|Friedrich Schlegel]], and [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]]. The spirit of the institution was semi-monastic and, while the education was excellent, it is doubtful whether there was enough social life and contact with the world for Fichte.<ref name="americana"/>

===Theological studies and private tutoring===
In 1780, Fichte began study at the [[University of Jena]]'s Lutheran<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T5UDDAAAQBAJ&dq=fichte+lutheran&pg=PT113 | title=Fichte's Ethical Thought | isbn=978-0-19-107950-4 | last1=Wood | first1=Allen W. | date=21 April 2016 | publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> theology seminary. He was transferred a year later to study at the [[Leipzig University]]. Fichte seems to have supported himself during this period of poverty and struggle.<ref name="americana"/> Without the financial support by von Miltitz, Fichte had to end his studies without completing his degree.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Breazeale |first1=Daniel |last2=Fichte |first2=Johann |title=Fichte: Early Philosophical Writings|date=1993|publisher=Cornell University Press|page=2}}<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref>

From 1784 to 1788, Fichte precariously supported himself as tutor for various Saxon families.<ref name="nie"/> In early 1788, he returned to [[Leipzig]] in the hope of finding a better employment, but eventually he had to settle for a less promising position with the family of an innkeeper in [[Zürich]].<ref>Anthony J. La Vopa, ''Fichte: The Self and the Calling of Philosophy, 1762-1799'', Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 26.</ref> He lived in Zürich for the next two years (1788–1790), where he met his future wife, Johanna Rahn,<ref name="americana"/><ref>She was the niece of the famous poet [[F. G. Klopstock]].</ref> and [[Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi]]. He also became, in 1793, a member of the [[Freemasonry]] lodge "Modestia cum Libertate", with which [[Johann Wolfgang Goethe]] was also connected.<ref>Imhof, Gottlieb (1959). ''Kleine Werklehre der Freimaurerei. I. Das Buch des Lehrlings''. 5th ed. Lausanne: Alpina, p. 42.</ref><ref>Lawatsch, Hans-Helmut (1991). "Fichte und die hermetische Demokratie der Freimaurer." In: Hammacher, Klaus, Schottky, Richard, Schrader, Wolfgang H. and Daniel Breazeale (eds.). ''Sozialphilosophie''. ''Fichte-Studien'', Vol. 3. Amsterdam-Atlanta: Editions Rodopi, p. 204, {{ISBN|978-90-5183-236-5}}.</ref> In the spring of 1790, he became engaged to Johanna.<ref name="La Vopa 151">Anthony J. La Vopa, ''Fichte: The Self and the Calling of Philosophy, 1762-1799'', Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 151.</ref> Fichte began to study the works of [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]] in the summer of 1790. This occurred initially because one of Fichte's students wanted to know about Kant's writings.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Breazeale |first1=Daniel |last2=Fichte |first2=Johann |title=Fichte: Early Philosophical Writings |date=1993 |publisher=Cornell University Press |page=4}}</ref> They had a lasting effect on his life and thought. However, while Fichte was studying Kantian philosophy, the Rahn family suffered financial reverses. His impending marriage had to be postponed.<ref name="americana"/>

===Kant===
From Zürich, Fichte returned to Leipzig in May 1790.<ref name="La Vopa 151"/> In early 1791, he obtained a tutorship in [[Warsaw]] in the house of a Polish nobleman. The situation, however, quickly proved disagreeable and he was released. He then got a chance to see Kant in [[Königsberg]]. After a disappointing interview on 4 July of the same year,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Breazeale |first1=Daniel |last2=Fichte |first2=Johann |title=Fichte: Early Philosophical Writings |date=1993 |publisher=Cornell University Press |page=7}}</ref> he shut himself in his lodgings and threw all his energies into the composition of an essay which would attract Kant's attention and interest. This essay, completed in five weeks, was the ''Versuch einer Critik ''[''sic'']'' aller Offenbarung''{{sic}} (''[[Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation]]'', 1792).<ref name="americana"/> In this book, according to [[Dieter Henrich]], Fichte investigated the connections between divine revelation and Kant's [[critical philosophy]]. The first edition was published without Kant's or Fichte's knowledge and without Fichte's name or signed preface. It was thus believed by the public to be a new work by Kant.<ref>It is unknown if the omission was an accident or a deliberate attempt by the publisher to sell copies. In either case, Fichte had not planned it and only heard about it much later. He wrote to his fiancée: "Why did I have to have such utterly strange, excellent, unheard-of good luck?" See Garrett Green's Introduction to ''Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.</ref>

When Kant cleared the confusion and openly praised the work and author, Fichte's reputation skyrocketed. In a letter to [[Karl Reinhold]], Jens Baggeson wrote that it was "...the most shocking and astonishing news... [since] nobody but Kant could have written this book. This amazing news of a third sun in the philosophical heavens has set me into such confusion."<ref>Letter from Jens Baggeson to Karl Reinhold. Quoted in Editor's Introduction to Fichte, ''Early Philosophical Writings''. London: Cornell University Press, 1988.</ref> Kant waited seven years to a make public statement about the incident; after considerable external pressure he dissociated himself from Fichte. In his statement, he inscribed, "May God protect us from our friends. From our enemies, we can try to protect ourselves."<ref>Popper, Karl. "The Open Society and Its Enemies." Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. Vol 2, p. 266.<!--ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>

===Jena===
In October 1793, Fichte was married in [[Zürich]], where he remained the rest of the year. Stirred by the events and principles of the [[French Revolution]], he wrote and anonymously published two pamphlets which led to him to be seen as a devoted defender of liberty of thought and action and an advocate of political changes. In December of the same year, he received an invitation to fill the position of extraordinary professor of philosophy at the University of Jena.<ref>On the role of Freemasonry in Fichte's call to Jena, see [[Klaus Hammacher]], ''Fichte und die Freimaurerei', in ''[[Fichte-Studien]]'' 2/1990, pp. 138–159; [[Hans-Helmut Lawatsch]], ''Fichte und die hermetische Demokratie der Freimaurei', in ''Fichte-Studien'', 3/1991, pp. 204–218. As quoted in {{in lang|it}} Marco Rampazzo Bazzan, [https://books.google.com/books?id=GEgzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA38 ''Il prisma "Rousseau". Lo sguardo di Fichte sulla politica tra Staatsrecht e Rivoluzione francese'']. Franco Angeli Edizioni, 2017, p. 38, ISBN 9788891757531</ref> He accepted and began his lectures in May 1794. With extraordinary zeal, he expounded his system of "[[transcendental idealism]]". His success was immediate. He excelled as a lecturer due to the earnestness and force of his personality. These lectures were later published under the title ''The Vocation of the Scholar'' (''Einige Vorlesungen über die Bestimmung des Gelehrten''). He gave himself up to intense production, and a succession of works soon appeared.<ref name="nie"/><ref name="americana"/>

===Atheism dispute===
{{main|Atheism dispute}}
Fichte was dismissed from the University of Jena in 1799 for [[atheism]]. He had been accused of this in 1798 after publishing the essay "Ueber{{sic}} den Grund unsers{{sic}} Glaubens an eine göttliche Weltregierung" ("On the Ground of Our Belief in a Divine World-Governance"), written in response to [[Friedrich Karl Forberg]]'s essay "Development of the Concept of Religion", in his ''Philosophical Journal''. For Fichte, God should be conceived primarily in moral terms: "The living and efficaciously acting moral order is itself God. We require no other God, nor can we grasp any other" ("On the Ground of Our Belief in a Divine World-Governance"). Fichte's intemperate "Appeal to the Public" ("Appellation an das Publikum", 1799) provoked [[F. H. Jacobi]] to publish an [[open letter]] in which he equated philosophy in general and Fichte's [[transcendental philosophy]] in particular with [[nihilism]].<ref name=SEP/>

===Berlin===
Since all the German states except Prussia had joined in the cry against Fichte, he was forced to go to Berlin. There he associated himself with [[Friedrich Schlegel|Friedrich]] and [[August Wilhelm Schlegel]], [[Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher|Schleiermacher]], [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling|Schelling]], and [[Ludwig Tieck|Tieck]].<ref name="americana"/> In April 1800, through the introduction of Hungarian writer [[Ignaz Aurelius Fessler]], he was initiated into [[Freemasonry]] in the Lodge Pythagoras of the Blazing Star, where he was elected minor warden. At first Fichte was a warm admirer of Fessler, and was disposed to aid him in his proposed Masonic reform. But later he became Fessler's bitter opponent. Their controversy attracted much attention among Freemasons.<ref name="Mackey">{{cite book|journal=Mackey's National Freemason|title=Fichte as a Freemason: October 1872 to September 1873|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ip5bF1xtRB0C&pg=PA430|page=430|date=2003|editor=Albert G. Mackey|isbn=978-0-7661-5717-0}}</ref> Fichte presented two lectures on the philosophy of Masonry during the same period as part of his work on the development of various [[Masonic degree|higher degrees]] for the lodge in Berlin.<ref name="Magee 55">Glenn Alexander Magee, ''Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition'', Cornell University Press, 2008, p. 55.</ref> Johann Karl Christian Fischer, a high official of the [[Grand Orient]], published those lectures in 1802/03 in two volumes under the title ''Philosophy of Freemasonry: Letters to Konstant'' (''Philosophie der Maurerei. Briefe an Konstant''), where "Konstant" referred to a fictitious non-Mason.<ref name="Magee 55"/>

In November 1800, Fichte published ''The Closed Commercial State: A Philosophical Sketch as an Appendix to the Doctrine of Right and an Example of a Future Politics'' (''Der geschlossene Handelsstaat. Ein philosophischer Entwurf als Anhang zur Rechtslehre und Probe einer künftig zu liefernden Politik''), a philosophical statement of his property theory, a historical analysis of European economic relations, and a political proposal for reforming them.<ref>Isaac Nakhimovsky, ''The Closed Commercial State: Perpetual Peace and Commercial Society from Rousseau to Fichte'', Princeton University Press, 2011, p. 6.</ref> In 1805, he was appointed to a professorship at the [[University of Erlangen]]. The [[Battle of Jena-Auerstedt]] in 1806, in which [[Napoleon]] defeated the Prussian army, drove him to Königsberg for a time, but he returned to Berlin in 1807 and continued his literary activity.<ref name="nie"/><ref name="americana"/>

Fichte wrote ''On Machiavelli, as an Author, and Passages from His Writings'' in June 1807. ("''Über Machiavell, als Schriftsteller, und Stellen aus seinen Schriften''" ). [[Carl von Clausewitz|Karl Clausewitz]] wrote a Letter to Fichte (1809) about his book on Machiavelli.

After the collapse of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], when German southern principalities resigned as member states and became part of a French protectorship, Fichte delivered the famous ''[[Addresses to the German Nation]]'' (''Reden an die deutsche Nation'', 1807-1808), which attempted to define the German Nation and guided the uprising against Napoleon.<ref>Kurt F. Reinhardt, ''Germany: 2000 Years'' (1950; rpt. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1961), I, pp. 322–326. Louis Snyder, ''Basic History of Modern Germany'' (Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand, 1957), pp. 23–26. (The end of the nominal Holy Roman Empire was an important factor advancing the cause of German nationalists by eliminating the last vestiges of that apparent German union, clearing the way for a German nation to emerge in its place.)</ref><ref>Michael D. McGuire (1976). ''Rhetoric, philosophy and the volk: Johann Gottlieb Fichte's addresses to the German nation.'' Quarterly Journal of Speech, 62:2, 135-144.</ref> He became a professor at the new [[Humboldt University of Berlin|University of Berlin]], founded in 1810. By the votes of his colleagues Fichte was unanimously elected its rector in the succeeding year. But, once more, his temperament led to friction, and he resigned in 1812. The campaign against Napoleon began, and the hospitals at Berlin were soon full of patients. Fichte's wife devoted herself to nursing and caught a virulent fever. Just as she was recovering, he became sick with [[typhus]] and died in 1814 at the age of 51.<ref name="nie"/><ref name="americana"/>

His son, [[Immanuel Hermann Fichte]] (18 July 1796 – 8 August 1879), also made contributions to [[philosophy]].