Johann Gottlieb Fichte The Doctrine Of The State

Johann Gottlieb Fichte: The Doctrine of the State

The Doctrine of the State is a major work of political philosophy and philosophy of history by one of the most important authors of German Idealism, Johann Gottlieb Fichte. It represents Fichte's final sustained attempt to provide a synoptic overview of his entire system, including a summary of his famously evolving Wissenschaftslehre. The work's overriding concern is with founding the rule of reason in an irrational world. Fichte provides a synoptic account of human history from the dawn of humanity, through the ancient world, and into a modern world governed by a kind of secularized Christianity. His account of humanity's development is one that involves the struggle between faith and reason. Fichte's philosophical analysis of history can be compared to other important works of this period, including works by Friedrich Schelling and G. W. F. Hegel. Written against the backdrop of Napoleon's disastrous defeat in Russia in 1813, the book also revisits the question of the nature and purpose of nationhood and conflict among peoples that Fichte had originally pursued in his important nationalist work, the Addresses to the German Nation. This edition also contains translated excerpts from Fichte's 1813 diary, where his fiery republican resistance to tyranny at home and abroad appear most clearly.

The Closed Commercial State

Appearing for the first time in a complete English translation, The Closed Commercial State represents the most sustained attempt of J. G. Fichte, the famed author of The Doctrine of Science, to apply idealistic philosophy to political economy. In the accompanying interpretive essay, Anthony Curtis Adler challenges the conventional scholarly view of The Closed Commercial State as a curious footnote to Fichte's thought. The Closed Commercial State, which Fichte himself regarded as his "best, most thought-through work," not only attests to a life-long interest in economics, but is of critical importance to his entire philosophical project. Carefully unpacking the philosophical nuances of Fichte's argument and its complex relationship to other texts in his oeuvre, Adler argues that The Closed Commercial State presents an understanding of the nature of history, and the relation of history to politics, that differs significantly from the teleological notions of history advanced by Schelling and later Hegel. This critical scholarly edition includes a German-English glossary, annotations, and page references to both major German editions.

The Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte