Fichte's Addresses to the German Nation Reconsidered

Description

One of J. G. Fichte's best-known works, Addresses to the German Nation is based on a series of speeches he gave in Berlin when the city was under French occupation. They feature Fichte's diagnosis of his own era in European history as well as his call for a new sense of German national identity, based upon a common language and culture rather than "blood and soil." These speeches, often interpreted as key documents in the rise of modern nationalism, also contain Fichte's most sustained reflections on pedagogical issues, including his ideas for a new egalitarian system of Prussian national education. The contributors' reconsideration of the speeches deal not only with technical philosophical issues such as the relationship between language and identity, and the tensions between universal and particular motifs in the text, but also with issues of broader concern, including education, nationalism, and the connection between morality and politics.
Abbreviations

Introduction. On Situating and Interpreting Fichte’s Addresses to the German Nation
Daniel Breazeale

1. From Autonomy to Automata? Fichte on Formal and Material Freedom and Moral Cultivation
Daniel Breazeale

2. Gedachtes Denken/Wirkliches Denken: A Strictly Philosophical Problem in Fichte’s Reden
Mario Jorge de Carvalho

3. Linguistic Expression in Fichte’s Addresses to the German Nation
Sıla Ozkara

4. Critique of Religion and Critical Religion in Fichte’s Addresses to the German Nation
Benjamin D. Crowe

5. Autonomy, Moral Education, and the Carving of a National Identity
C. Jeffery Kinlaw

6. Fichte’s Nationalist Rhetoric and the Humanistic Project of Bildung
Marina F. Bykova

7. The Ontological and Epistemological Background of German Nationalism in Fichte’s Addresses
Rainer Schafer

8. Fichte’s Imagined Community and the Problem of Stability
Gabriel Gottlieb

9. Rights, Recognition, Nationalism, and Fichte’s Ambivalent Politics: An Attempt at a Charitable Reading of the Addresses to the German Nation
Arnold L. Farr

10. How to Change the World: Cultural Critique and the Historical Sublime in the Addresses to the German Nation
Michael Steinberg

11. Fichte’s Addresses to the German Nation and the Philosopher as Guide
Tom Rockmore

12. World War I, the Two Germanies, and Fichte’s Addresses
Anthony N. Perovich

13. Fault Lines in Fichte’s Reden
George J. Seidel

List of Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie politique
• Germany
• History of Europe
• Nationalism
• Philosophy

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 30 août 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781438462561
• Langue: English

Extrait

FICHTE’S
Addresses to the German Nation
RECONSIDERED
FICHTE’S
Addresses to the German Nation
RECONSIDERED
Edited by
Daniel Breazeale and Tom Rockmore
Published by
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
Albany
© 2016 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Breazeale, Daniel, editor. | Rockmore, Tom, 1942– editor.
Title: Fichte’s addresses to the German nation reconsidered / edited by Daniel Breazeale and Tom Rockmore.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016007289 (print) | LCCN 2016030221 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438462554 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438462561 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, 1762-1814. Reden an die deutsche Nation. | Germany—Politics and government—1806-1815. | Education and state—Germany—History—19th century. | National characteristics, German—History—19th century.
Classification: LCC DD199.F43 F53 2016 (print) | LCC DD199.F43 (ebook) | DDC 320.540943—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016007289
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction. On Situating and Interpreting Fichte’s Addresses to the German Nation
Daniel Breazeale
1. From Autonomy to Automata? Fichte on Formal and Material Freedom and Moral Cultivation
Daniel Breazeale
2. Gedachtes Denken/Wirkliches Denken : A Strictly Philosophical Problem in Fichte’s Reden
Mário Jorge de Carvalho
3. Linguistic Expression in Fichte’s Addresses to the German Nation
Sıla Özkara
4. Critique of Religion and Critical Religion in Fichte’s Addresses to the German Nation
Benjamin D. Crowe
5. Autonomy, Moral Education, and the Carving of a National Identity
C. Jeffery Kinlaw
6. Fichte’s Nationalist Rhetoric and the Humanistic Project of Bildung
Marina F. Bykova
7. The Ontological and Epistemological Background of German Nationalism in Fichte’s Addresses
Rainer Schäfer
8. Fichte’s Imagined Community and the Problem of Stability
Gabriel Gottlieb
9. Rights, Recognition, Nationalism, and Fichte’s Ambivalent Politics: An Attempt at a Charitable Reading of the Addresses to the German Nation
Arnold L. Farr
10. How to Change the World: Cultural Critique and the Historical Sublime in the Addresses to the German Nation
Michael Steinberg
11. Fichte’s Addresses to the German Nation and the Philosopher as Guide
Tom Rockmore
12. World War I, the Two Germanies, and Fichte’s Addresses
Anthony N. Perovich
13. Fault Lines in Fichte’s Reden
George J. Seidel
List of Contributors
Index
Abbreviations Used in This Volume AA Immanuel Kants gesammelte Schriften (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1902 ff.) AGN Addresses to the German Nation , trans. Gregory Moore (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) AGN 2 Addresses to the German Nation , trans. Isaac Nakhimovsky, Béla Kapossy, and Keith Tribe (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett, 2013) BM Fichte, Die Bestimmung des Menschen (1800) BWL Fichte, Ueber den Begriff der Wissenschaftslehre (1794) EPW Fichte: Early Philosophical Writings , ed. and trans. Daniel Breazeale (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988) ET G. H. Turnbull, The Educational Theory of J. G. Fichte. A Critical Account, together with Translations (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1927) FiG Fichte in Gespräche , ed. Erich Fuchs. 7 Vols. (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1978–2012) FNR Fichte, Foundations of Natural Right , ed. Frederick Neuhouser, trans. Michael Baur (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) FTP Fichte: Foundations of Transcendental Philosophy (Wissenschaftslehre) nova methodo , ed. and trans. Daniel Breazeale (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992) GA J. G. Fichte-Gesamtausgabe der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften , ed. Erich Fuchs, Reinhard Lauth†, and Hans Gliwitzky† (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1964ff.) GNR Fichte, Grundlage des Naturrechts (1796/97) GG Fichte, Über den Grund unseres Glaubens an eine göttliche Weltregierung (1798) GWL Fichte, Grundlage der gesammten Wissenschaftslehre (1794/95) IWL Fichte, Introductions to the Wissenschaftslehre and Other Writings , ed. and trans. Daniel Breazeale (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994) PW The Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte , trans. William Smith, 2 Vols., 4th ed. (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1999 [orig., London: Trübner, 1889) RD Fichte, Reden an die Deutsche Nation (1808) SE Fichte, System of Ethics , ed. and trans. Daniel Breazeale and Günter Zöller (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005) SK Science of Knowledge , trans. Peter Heath and John Lachs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970) SS Fichte, System der Sittenlehre (1798) SW Johann Gottlieb Fichtes sämmtliche Werke , ed. I. H. Fichte, eight vols. (Berlin: Viet Co., 1845–46); rpt., along with the three vols. of Johann Gottlieb Fichtes nachgelassene Werke (Bonn: Adolphus-Marcus, 1834–35), as Fichtes Werke (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1971) WLnm[H] Fichte, Wissenschaftslehre nova methodo (“Halle Nachshrift,” 1796/97) WLnm[K] Fichte, Wissenschaftslehre nova methodo (“Krause Nachschrift,” 1798/99)
Introduction
On Situating and Interpreting Fichte’s Addresses to the German Nation
D ANIEL B REAZEALE
In July 1799, shortly after losing his position as professor of philosophy at the University of Jena, Fichte moved to Berlin. At that point, the Prussian capital still lacked a university of its own, and thus Fichte was forced to support himself and his family (which remained in Jena until joining him in Berlin a few years later) solely by mean of his writings and privately subscribed lessons and lectures. To this end, he composed and published in quick succession four books intended for a broad “popular” audience: The Vocation of Man (January 1800), The Closed Commercial State (November 1800), the Sun-Clear Report to the General Public concerning the Essence of the Latest Philosophy (April 1801), and Friedrich Nicolai’s Life and Remarkable Opinions (May 1801). 1 Soon after arriving in Berlin Fichte also became heavily invested in an (ultimately unsuccessful) effort to reform a local branch of Royal York Masonic lodge, and his lectures to his fellow Masons were published, in a heavily edited version, in a local Masonic journal in 1802 and 1803 under the title Letters to Constance . 2
One suspects that financial exigencies 3 were also at least partially responsible for his decision to authorize a new edition of his first (and, as at it turned out only) full-scale presentation of the foundations of his new system of philosophy, the so-called Wissenschaftslehre or “Doctrine of Science” of 1794/95. This new edition, which was bound with a reissue of The Distinctive Character of the Wissenschaftslehre with Respect to Theoretical Faculty (1795) appeared in 1802. 4 Yet despite all of this disruption and “popular” literary activity, Fichte by no means abandoned his ongoing “scientific” efforts to perfect his system after arriving in Berlin; on the contrary, he immediately set to work on a new version of the Wissenschaftslehre , based upon the text of his lectures on “Foundations of Transcendental Philosophy ( Wissenschaftslehre ) nova methodo ,” which he had successfully delivered three times in Jena. Presumably, this was also the version that he employed as the basis for a private tutorial on his philosophy, which he conducted in late 1800 for a local banker, Samuel Solomon Levy.
Sometime in the winter of 1800–01, however, he abandoned his efforts to revise his Jena lectures and began instead an altogether new presentation of the Wissenschaftslehre. Once again, as was his custom, he developed this new version in conjunction with private lectures that he delivered daily in his own apartment to a small group of listeners in the spring of 1802. Though he produced a complete manuscript of this new version of the Wissenschaftslehre (“New Presentation of the Wissenschaftslehre ,” 1801–02 5 ), he abandoned it as well and began yet another completely new presentation of his system, once again in conjunction with a private tutorial for a local count, which he conducted in the spring of 1803. 6 Eighteen-four was a year devoted entirely to renewed efforts on his part to construct an adequate presentation of the Wissenschaftslehre . Over the course of that year Fichte composed and presented to his private students no fewer than three complete sets of lectures on the Wissenschaftslehre . 7 The following year he continued to develop this new version of his philosophy in the form of private lectures entitled “Doctrine of God, Ethics, and Right.” 8 Despite the truly immense effort that he had devoted to these efforts, none of these radically new presentations of the Wissenschaftslehre appeared during the author’s lifetime, and some did not appear until the first decade of the twenty-first century.
During the latter part of 1804 Fichte announced plans to deliver, by subscription and individual ticket sales, weekly Sunday lectures in a rented hall in the Academy of Sciences. The announced topic of these Sunday lectures was “A Philosophical Characteristic of the Age.” The series began November 4, 1804, and continued until March 17, 1805. Despite the rather high cost of both subscriptions and individual tickets, the audience for these lectures numbered well over one hundred and included government ministers and foreign ambassadors. Thes